THE LIFE 



POPE PIUS IX 



GEE AT EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OE THE CHURCH 
DURING HIS PONTIFICATE. 



r 

By JOHN GILMAKY SHEA. 



New York: 
THOMAS KELLY. 
1877. 




^^^^^^^ ^^f^^J^&^^^^SP 



15Tryf3 



COPYRIGHT BT 

THOMAS KELLY, 
1877. 



Printed by Thomas Kelly, . 
New York. 



PREFACE. 



HERE is not a Catholic family in 
which the little ones do not recog- 
nize the portrait of our Holy Father, 
Pope Pius IX., and look upon it with 
affection and reverence. The war which 
the world has waged upon him so un- 
relentingly as Pope and Prince has drawn 
all faithful hearts to him, while his piety, 
charity, patience, and gentleness endear 
him personally to every Catholic. 

There are, unfortunately, few lives of 
this great Pope in the hands of the peo- 
ple. In time, elaborate works will come 
rich in documents and illustrations, for 
those whose leisure permits them to study 
thoroughly the history of our century: 
our aim is a modest one: it is simply to 

3 



4 PREFACE. 

give the general reader as vivid a picture 
as we can in brief of what our loved and 
venerate^ Pope has done and suffered 
and accomplished ; to picture his character 
so as to make it as well known among us 
as his countenance, and thus rivet more 
firmly the loyalty and attachment which 
bind the faithful to the See of Peter and 
to the two hundred and fiftieth of the 
Sovereign Pontiffs, who began with the 
Prince of the Apostles. 

Catholic princes and governments have 
ceased to exist : the Church addresses 
herself to the Catholic hearts of her peo- 
ple : Pope Pius IX. looks to them for the 
moral support which, under heaven, is to 
sustain him in his trials, and to these 
devoted adherents of our beloved Pope 
we offer our brief sketch. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

His Birth and Education. — Illness. — Enters 
the Ecclesiastical State. — Tata Giovanni. 
— Mission to Chili. — Archbishop of Spo- 
leto. — Bishop of Imola. — Cardinal 11 

CHAPTER II. 

The Election. — Cardinal Mastai Ferretti cho- 
sen Pope. — The Ordinance of Amnesty. — 
The Memorandum of 1831.— Popularity 
of Pius IX. at Home and Abroad. — 
Opinions of American Statesmen as to the 
Pope 57 

CHAPTER III. 

Pius IX. and the Church at Large. — His 
First Encyclical. — Promotion of Cardi- 
nals. — The Pope in the Pulpit. — Ecclesi- 
astical Reforms. — Ireland. — America. — 
Religious Orders 79 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Civil Affairs of Rome.— Italy in a Fer- 
ment. — The Fundamental Statute. — The 
Italian War against Austria. — Defeat of 
Charles Albert. — Change of Ministry. — 
Violence of the Revolutionists against the 
Pope. — The Church in Russia. — Spain. — 
France , 103 



6 



COOTEOTS. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Ministry of Count Rossi. — A United 
Italy. — Assassination of Rossi. — The 
Quirinal besieged. — Pius IX. deserted by 
all but the Diplomatic Corps. — His Es- 
cape to Gaeta. — His Reception bv the 
King of Naples 123 

CHAPTER VI. 

Pius IX. at Gaeta, — His Protest, — Rome in 
the Hands of the Revolution. — Inter- 
vention of the Catholic Powers. — General 
Oudinot Recovers Rome. — Xapoleon's 
Tortuous Policy. — Pius IX. Invited to 
America, — Encyclical on the Immaculate 
Conception. — His Work at Gaeta 147 

CHAPTER VII. 

Pius IX. Restored to Rome. — His Edict of 
September 12, 1849. —His Return to 
Rome. — The English Hierarchy. — The 
Church and the World 185 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Definition of the Dogma of the Immac- 
ulate Conception of the Blessed Virgin 
Mary. — The Accident at the Church" of 
St. !Agnes. — "Immaculate Virgin, Help 
Us!*' 213 

CHAPTER IX. 

The French War against Austria. — Its Re- 
sults. — The Sardinians seize Bologna and 
incite the Legations to Revolt. — Dupli- 



CONTENTS. 



7 



city of Napoleon III. — The Kingdom of 
Naples seized. — Victor Emmanuel an- 
nexes the Marches andUmbria. — A Papal 
Army under Lamoriciere attempts to 
uphold the Pope's Authority. — Castelfi- 
dardo. — Ancona Capitulates. — The Ma- 
ronites of the Lebanon. — Conversions in 
Bulgaria. — Hostility of the French Gov- 
ernment. — The Canonization of the Jap- 
anese Martyrs 244 

CHAPTER X. 

The Polish Persecution. — Efforts of Pope 
Pius IX. — The Convention of September 
15, 1864. — The Encyclical Quanta Cura 
and the Syllabus. — Prussia's Progress in 
Germany. — France Evacuates Rome. — 
The Centenary of St. Peter. — Canoniza- 
tion of the Martyrs of Gorcum. — Gari- 
baldi renews his Attempts on Rome. — 
Bad Faith of the Sardinians. — The 
French return. — Men tana and the Defeat 
of Garibaldi 273 

CHAPTER XL 

The Golden Jubilee of Pius IX.— The Bull 
iEterni Patris Convoking the General 
Council. — The Council of the Vatican . . 302 

CHAPTER XII. 

Victor Emmanuel invades the Papal Terri- 
tory. — He takes Rome with an Army of 
Sixty Thousand Men. — Pius IX. a Pris- 
oner. — His Encyclical denouncing the 
Act 333 



8 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The Prisoner of the Vatican. — The Law of 
Guarantees. — The Encyclical of May, 
1871, condemning it. — Peter's Pence. — 
Its Employment. — The Years of Peter. 
— The Twenty-fifth Anniversary of his 
Election and Coronation 354 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Victor Emmanuel in Rome. — Seizure of the 
Quirinal. — Devotion of the Romans to 
Pius IX. — Persecution of the Church in 
Germany and Switzerland. — The Sacred 
College. — An Irish Cardinal. — Persecu- 
tion in Brazil, Russia, and Italy. — An 
American Cardinal. — The Golden Jubi- 
lees 379 

CHAPTER XV. 

Personal Appearance of Pius IX. — His Mode 
of Life. — Supernatural Gifts ascribed to 
Him. — Conclusion 424 



THE LIFE AND TIMES 

OF THE 

SOVEREIGN PONTIFF PIUS IX. 



CHAPTER I. 

His Bieth and Education. — Illness. — En- 
ters the Ecclesiastical State. — Tata 
Giovanni. — Mission to Chili. — Arch- 
bishop of Spoleto. — Bishop of Imola. — 
Cardinal. 

HERE have been great and illustri- 
ous pontificates in the history of the 
W Church, pontificates that stand promi- 
nently forth by the personal holiness 
of the Pope and the great works he ac- 
complished for the Church of God, or the 
great sufferings he underwent in her de- 
fense. 

These pontificates mark distinct epochs 
in ecclesiastical history; and with them 
posterity will range the remarkable reign 
of Pius IX. The length of years during 

9 



10 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



which Divine Providence has sustained 
him in his eminent position ; the personal 
sanctity which breathes forth in all his 
actions ; the zeal with which he has met 
the spirit of an unbelieving age, that 
seeks to destroy alike the organization 
and the faith of the Church ; the denning 
of an article of faith called for by the 
piety of a world, the convoking of a gen- 
eral council, the heroism and serenity dis- 
played amid the vicissitudes and misfor- 
tunes that have chequered his career; 
exile, spoliation, imprisonment; a great 
heart afflicted by the sight of the evils 
visited on those who adhered to him and 
to the cause of God; all these conspire to 
invest Pius IX. and his pontificate with a 
halo peculiarly his own. 

Living in the same period, we lose sight, 
in the daily occurrence of events, of that 
full view with which history will regard 
the great Pope of the noontide of the 
nineteenth century. Hence it becomes 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



11 



necessary to picture it at once to the eyes 
of the faithful, that grasping the details 
in a single canvas they may regard with 
awe the illustrious highpriest who now 
rules the Church of Grod on earth. 

John Mary Mastai Ferretti was born 
and baptized at Sinigaglia, in the an- 
cient duchy of Urbino, on the 13th of 
May, 1792, when France was in the throes 
of that Revolution which was to convulse 
Europe and exercise so baleful an influ- 
ence over the incoming century. 

The Mastai family, originally from Cre- 
ma, in Lombard y, had for six centuries 
held a prominent position at Sinigaglia, 
and his father, Count Jerome, gonfalonier 
of the city, was the heir also of the dis- 
tinguished family of the Ferretti. His 
mother, the Countess Catharine Solazzi, 
illustrated her high rank by her virtues 
and sound judgment. 

The earliest impressions of the child 
were of the new war of the World on the 



PIUS VI. (John- Angelo Braschi.) 
Born 1717. 
Reigned 1775-1799. 



14 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

Church, his uncle Andrew, the unflinch- 
ing bishop of Pesaro, having been impris- 
oned for his fidelity to the Holy See; and 
the earliest special prayers taught him by 
his pious mother, being offered up for the 
deliverance of Pope Pius VI. when that 
venerable pontiff was a prisoner in the 
hands of the French. The sympathy of 
his young heart gave fervor to these pray- 
ers, but the pious mother had to remind 
him of our Saviour's prayer on the cross 
for his executioners, to unfold to the mind 
of her son the Christian motives that re- 
quired him to pray for the persecutors. 

Thus in days when the future of reli- 
gion looked so gloomy, a pious mother 
prepared by the faithful discharge of her 
duties a great Pontiff for the Church. 

"But, mother," said the boy, "these 
French who have carried off the Pope are 
wicked people, are they not ? And you 
make me pray for them ? " 

" My son, if they are wicked we have 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 15 

all the more reason to pray for them : but 
they are not all wicked. It is their gov- 
ernment which holds the Pope a prisoner. 
Their government is wicked." 

" And must we pray for that govern- 
ment ? " 

"Yes, surely. Our Lord prayed for 
those who crucified him." 

In October, 1797, while the family were 
at a country seat, the young boy was 
rambling out under the care of a servant. 
Unperceived by his attendant he ran to 
the bank of a deep pond, and while ea- 
gerly watching the shoals of tiny fish near 
the bank, lost his balance and fell in. 
The servant, warned by the splashing of 
the water, rushed up and rescued the boy; 
but a fever resulted, followed by a gen- 
eral prostration of strength and ultimately, 
as we shall see, by serious disease. 

When he attained the age of eleven his 
parents placed him at Volterra, in a col- 
lege directed by the Fathers of the Pious 



16 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

Schools, an order founded by Saint Jo- 
serjh Calasanctius, and which, after the 
suppression of the Jesuits, endeavored in 
many parts to replace the colleges of that 
illustrious body. Young Mastai won es- 
teem with all by his talents and applica- 
tion, by his brilliancy in thought and 
expression, by that sweetness of disposi- 
tion, which blended with a firm and noble 
character never degenerated into weak- 
ness. He was prominent among the stu- 
dents, and always selected as a represen- 
tative pupil by his accomplished teachers 
when royal personages visited the institu- 
tion. 

He had reached the age of sixteen, and 
the close of his college course was ap- 
proaching with its honors, when all hopes 
of academic success, and of eminence in 
after life were dashed by a sudden blow. 
The young student was seized with sud- 
den fits of epilepsy. This seemed to pre- 
clude him from embracing the ecclesiasti- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX, 17 

cal state to which his wishes and those of 
his parents had already directed him. The 
prayer of faith rather than medical skill 
checked the disease, and in 1809, John 
Mary Mastai Ferretti received the tonsure 
at the hands of Monsignor Tecontie, the 
bishop of Volterra. He then proceeded 
to Rome, and living in the household of 
an uncle, Paulinus Mastai, who was a 
canon in the Vatican Basilica, he entered 
upon those studies which were to fit him, 
intellectually, for the priesthood, to which 
God called him. But he was not long 
permitted to enjoy the advantages of a 
training in the great divinity schools of 
the Capital of the Christian World. In 
May, of that same year, Napoleon issued 
a decree dispossessing the Pope of his 
States, and in July the Holy Father, Pius 
VII., was torn from the Quirinal by French 
troops and hurried away a prisoner to 
Savona. 

The young levite withdrew from the 



18 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

Holy City, but was faithful to his voca- 
tion: for when in 1812 his birth and mer- 
its induced the emperor to summon him 
to Milan to enter the guard of honor, 
he turned from all worldly rank, and as 
his malady still hung over him, obtained 
an exemption from the service. The ca- 
reer of arms, even in the service of the 
Holy See to which he gave his whole 
heart, never was his object : he never en- 
tered it. 

He remained at Sinigaglia till Pope 
Pius VII., in 1814, passed through that 
city on his return to Rome. Then Mastai 
hastened to the tomb of St. Peter to re- 
sume his studies on the opening of the 
Ecclesiastical Academy. He arrived in 
time to witness Rome's rapturous wel- 
come to the holy Pontiff in May, 1814. 
Soon after his arrival Providence brought 
the „ young noble into contact with the 
director of the Tata Giovanni, a chari- 
table establishment. A single visit filled 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 19 

him with admiration, and from that time 
young Mastai became so interested in its 
good works that he consecrated all his 
leisure to its service. 

He was looked for regularly every day 
by the inmates, but one evening their 
friend was absent. A cardinal's carriage 
suddenly reined up at the door to call 
upon them to run out and aid a young 
man whom, in the gathering darkness, he 
discerned lying on the street. Several 
ran to find their young benefactor writh- 
ing in an epileptic fit. He was at once 
borne into the house, and medical aid 
summoned. 

When he recovered, the young count 
disappeared for a time. Without an- 
nouncing his purpose, he made a pilgrim- 
age to the Holy House of Loretto, and 
there implored the intercession of the 
Blessed Virgin for his total cure, devot- 
ing his health when restored to the ser- 
vice of her divine Son. Then full of hope 



20 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



he continued his theological course under 
the eminent professor, Joseph Grraziosi. 

The gradual improvement of his health, 
and the abating of the attacks of his dis- 
tressing malady encouraged him greatly, 
and relying on the hand of God rather 
than on human skill, he trusted in a com- 
plete restoration. To his joy he was ad- 
mitted at last to minor orders. 

His promotion to these holy conditions 
was followed by actual service in the 
ministry in 1818. Monsignor Odescalchi, 
who afterwards laid aside the purple to 
become a member of the Society of Jesus, 
was sent in that year, with the venerable 
Bishop Strambi, to give a mission in the 
province of Sinigaglia, and he invited the 
young cleric Mastai to take part in the 
good work. His first essay in the minis- 
try was thus made under two men whose 
sanctity is generally revered ; indeed the 
process of the canonization of the vener- 
able Bishop Strambi has already begun. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



21 



The labors of the young levite in his 
humble sphere, discharged with zeal, were 
crowned with happy results, and he re- 
turned invigorated in mind and body, 
eager to hasten the moment when, as a 
priest, he might labor for the salvation of 
souls. He solicited a dispensation to ena- 
ble him to receive the holy orders of sub- 
deacon and deacon. He was ordained sub- 
deacon in December, 1818, by Monsignor 
Pietro Caprano, Archbishop of Iconium ; 
and with holy importunity solicited from 
Pope Pius VII. a further dispensation so 
that he might receive the priesthood. The 
Holy Father yielded to his prayer, mak- 
ing it a condition that in celebrating the 
Holy Sacrifice he should be assisted by 
another priest. But this condition was a 
cross to the young priest, who solicited a 
special audience of the Pope to obtain its 
removal, Pius VIL, as if foreseeing the 
" future, received him with great kindness, 
and granted his earnest petition, saying : 



22 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



" Even this favor will we grant you, as I 
believe that you will never for the future 
be affected by your disease." Nearly sixty 
years have elapsed to prove the accuracy 
of the words of Pope Pius VII. 

The noble young deacon accordingly 
received priestly ordination on the 10th 
of April, 1819, in the chapel of the ducal 
palace Doria Painfili. 

A love for the poor and neglected was 
the great characteristic of the young priest. 
Instead of seeking preferment or any field 
for the display of his talents, he had made 
his home in the Tata Giovanni asylum 
near the Church of Santa Anna dei Fa- 
lignami (St. Anne of the Joiners), devot- 
ing himself to the care and maintenance 
of its hundred outcast inmates. The in- 
struction of these forsaken boys in their 
catechism and their religious duties was 
his task of predilection. To imprint in 
the hearts of these boys the truths of re- 
ligion and guide them to its practice was 




PIUS IX.'s FIRST MASS, APIIIL 11, 181U. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



25 



in his eyes the noblest of duties. The 
Pope whose utterances in favor -of thor- 
ough Catholic education have resounded 
through the world set in his early life an 
example to all. His conviction of its ne- 
cessity is based on his own experience as 
a priest. In the church, or rather chapel, 
of St. Anne, the young priest said his first 
mass, on Easter Sunday, in the year 1819, 
amid the fatherless, to whom he had de- 
voted himself. 

This asylum for destitute boys, in its 
homely name, "Tata Giovanni," recalls 
its humble and zealous founder, Giovanni 
Borgi, a poor mason. It was for seven 
years the residence and especial charge 
of the zealous priest. The young noble 
gloried in being permitted to carry on the 
work begun by the poor and illiterate 
mason, who, touched with the misery of 
the homeless and neglected boys, gathered 
them together to teach them at once to be 
useful to man and faithful to God. There 



26 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



they are taught the elementary branches, 
drawing, designing, and other studies to 
fit them for useful trades. In this institu- 
tion the plain and homely room once occu- 
pied by Pius IX. is still shown, as well as 
the chair he used while instructing his 
pupils. On this asylum, which his great 
j^atron, Pope Pius VII. had enlarged, the 
young priest bestowed much of his in- 
come, and by wise reforms he increased its 
power for good, especially in the thor- 
oughness of the inculcating of religious 
knowledge, and in opening to the inmates 
higher grades of employment, as engrav- 
ers, carvers, and sculptors. His own patri- 
mony was used freely for the benefit of 
those for whom employment could not be 
found. 

Amid all the cares of his later life and 
his long and eventful pontificate Pius IX. 
loves to recall those years of obscure de- 
votedness, which had no annalist to record 
them. He remembers his old pupils. As 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 27 

recently as 1871, a Roman jeweler who 
was admitted to an audience was compli- 
mented by the Pope for his custom of 
taking apprentices from the Tata Gio- 
vanni. " Have you any of my old boys 
now ? " asked his Holiness. The jeweler 
in vain endeavored to revive his recollec- 
tions. " You must have such a one," said 
the Pope, naming one whom he had him- 
self instructed, and learning that he was 
still in the jeweler's employ, inquired par- 
ticularly as to his condition, his family, 
and his life. 

The zeal and humility of the young 
priest were not overlooked. The Vicar of 
Rome, Cardinal della Grenga, noting his 
ability, resolved to employ him in another 
field. The revolutions which deprived 
Spain of most of her transatlantic posses- 
sions had in the turmoil of civil war, 
weakened the religious spirit and deso- 
lated the Church. Many sees in Span- 
ish America were deprived of bishops: 



28 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



churches, missions, and schools were ne- 
glected, discipline was relaxed and reli- 
gious orders were unfruitful of good. 
The Archdeacon of the Cathedral of San- 
tiago, Joseph Ignatius Cienfuegos, ar- 
rived at Rome in 1823, as Ambassador 
from the Republic of Chili, to request the 
Holy See to send a delegate apostolic to 
that republic for the purpose of reorgan- 
izing* the religious element. Monsimor 
Muzi, afterwards Bishop of Castello, was 
selected for this important mission, and 
consecrated Archbishop of Philippi inpar- 
tibuSj and appointed delegate apostolic for 
Chili and the neighboring states. The 
Cardinal Vicar, as well as Cardinal Gon- 
salvi, Secretary of State, urged the zeal- 
ous priest, Mastai Ferretti, to take part in 
the mission. The danger of so long a 
voyage alarmed his mother, who appealed 
to the Cardinal Secretary of State to re- 
call the appointment, but Pope Pius VII. 
had already acted upon it, and - now 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 29 

wrote to the Countess to assure her of 
the safe return of her son. 

She was not alone in deploring his de- 
parture. The young inmates of Tata Gio- 
vanni were thunderstruck at the tidings 
that they were so soon to lose their de- 
voted director. A scene ensued that was 
never effaced from those young minds. 
" We knew nothing of the matter," says 
a worthy shoemaker, then one of the in- 
mates, " we knew nothing, and yet the 
moment of separation had come. After 
supper, he did not utter a word. We all 
noticed it. When grace was ended, we 
were about to leave the table when he 
motioned us to sit down. Then he broke 
the sad news. A cry of real pain ran 
from one end of the hall to the other. 
There were a hundred and twenty of us, 
large and small, and there was not one 
who was not crying bitterly. Suddenly 
we all started up to rush to his arms. 
Some kissed his hands, some grasped his 



30 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



robe, those who could not reach him, 
called him by every endearing name, as 
we all implored him not to forsake us. 
He was himself so touched by our de- 
spair, that he began to weep ; he pressed 
the nearest to his heart, saying : 1 1 would 
never have believed that our parting 
would be so sad.' Then he tore himself 
from us and ran up to his room. He 
tried to shut the door, but could not: 
We were all there and made our way in. 
That night no one went to bed. We all 
remained in his room, and he spoke words 
I cannot describe, seeking to calm and 
comfort us. He urged us to be diligent 
and obedient to his successor; lie told us 
always to fulfill our duties with joy, and 
to be ever submissive to the decrees of 
Providence. Then at daybreak we heard 
a carriage roll up to the door. It came 
to tear our benefactor from us. An hour 
later we were doubly orphans." 

Steam had not yet been applied to 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



31 



the navigation of the seas, and the envoy 
of the Holy See found no readier way of 
reaching his destination than to embark 
at Genoa in a French brig, the Heloise, 
sailing for Buenos Ayres, and then to tra- 
vel by land across the continent to Chili. 
The party, which left Eome July 3, 1823, 
consisted of Archbishop Muzi, the young 
priest Mastai Ferretti, the Rev. Mr. Sal- j 
lusti, secretary, and subsequently historian 
of the mission, with Archdeacon Cienfue- 
gos and another Chilian priest, Father 
Raymond Arce, of the order of St. Dom- 
inic. Before embarking the Abate Mas- 
tai learned to his great grief of the death 
of Pope Pius VII., his benefactor and 
friend. Leo XII., however, not only con- 
firmed the powers of his predecessor to 
the members of the Chilian mission, but 
in his brief added to Mastai's name the 
words " who is personally dear to us." 

During the delay at Genoa, he was fre- 
quently in the society of the archbishop, 



32 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

Lambruschini, afterwards cardinal, the 
first meeting of two between whom a con- 
clave was one day to make its choice for 
the see of Peter. 

The Heloise finally sailed on the 5th of 
May. 

A storm soon drove them into the port 
of Palma, in the island of Majorca, where 
the envoy of the Holy See and his asso- 
ciates were arrested by the Spanish autho- 
rities and subjected to a long interrogatory 
as to the object of their mission. 

The future prisoner of the Vatican was 
thus confined in a prison by the party of 
the Revolution. As he remarked to the 
diplomatic corps in 1870, he then saw 
the necessity of the independence of the 
Pope. A ration of food was sent him 
every day from the vessel, but no let- 
ters, papers, or correspondence of any 
kind. 

" On that occasion," says he, " I was ini- 
tiated in the little devices of close prison- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 33 

ers. We concealed notes in the bread, and 
I thus learned of the Duke d'Angoul^me's 
victory at Trocadero. After that action, 
which entailed their ruin, the Spanish 
insurgents gave no further thought to 
the poor canon, and we were allowed to 
depart." 

Continuing their voyage, they passed 
the Straits of Gibraltar, and steered for 
Teneriffe, thence crossing the Atlantic. 
Fearful storms beset them all through 
the voyage, causing much sickness and 
discomfort. On the 2 2d of December, 
the sea broke so violently on the ves- 
sel's side as to hurl the young priest 
across the cabin, and against the partition 
with great violence. It was deemed al- 
most a miracle that he did not seriously 
injure Father Arce, who was on his knees 
in prayer just opposite him. 

Towards night Canon Mastai saw the 
mate, who was throwing the lead, swept 
off by an enormous wave. He ran out 



34 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

on deck to give the alarm and aid 
in rescuing him. Various objects were 
thrown in hopes of giving him support, 
and a boat was let down, at great risk, 
which fortunately reached him about two 
miles from the brig. The storm kept on 
the following days, but on the 24th lulled 
somewhat, and Monsignor Muzi said the 
midnight mass, as Canon Mastai did that 
at daybreak. 

On the second day after the great feast 
they were in sight of the mouth of the 
La Plata, only to be driven out to sea 
again, and it was only on the morning of 
New Year's day that they anchored before 
Montevideo, and two days later reached 
Buenos Ayres. 

Here they were received with the great- 
est joy by the people and clergy, but the 
government evinced a latent hostility. 
At that time, owing to the revolutions, 
South America was almost without bish- 
ops, as many had died, and others retired 



LIFE OF POPE PITTS IX. 35 

to Spain, while no new nominations had 
been made, owing to the fact that no 
arrangements had been entered into be- 
tween the newly-formed republics and the 
Holy See. There was an earnest desire 
to have confirmation conferred by the 
Prefect Apostolic, and young men long 
since prepared ordained to the priesthood. 

The canon Mastai aided the archbishop 
in all the labors thus imposed upon him, 
and conciliated all by his urbanity, zeal, 
and talents during their brief stay in the 
city. They left it on the 16th of January, 
for their long and tedious journey across 
the Pampas, by the way of Rosario, Cor- 
dova, and Mendoza, and then over the 
Andes. Their route was a constant mis- 
sion. As the news of their coming spread, 
the priests prepared their flocks to re- 
ceive confirmation at the hands of the 
archbishop sent from Eome by the Holy 
Father. But if piety thus heralded the 
progress of the envoys of the Holy See, 



36 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



the tidings reached also the wild Indians 
of the plains, who at once concluded that 
so honored a party inust possess great 
wealth. A formidable band of warriors 
collected to cut thern off. Providentially 
they mistook their time, and arrived too 
soon at a dangerous pass, and rode off in 
pursuit only to allow them to escape in 
safety. But the journey was one of con- 
stant alarm and hardship. They were 
often for days without shelter amid storm 
and tempest. On the 24th of February, 
the pious band reached the foot of the 
Andes, and scaling that great mountain 
range, the future Pope looked down from 
its volcanic peaks on the continent un- 
rolled before him. Then descending the 
rocky mountain side, they reached the rich 
and luxuriant plains of Chili, and on the 
6th of March entered the city of Santi- 
ago. 

During his whole stay in South Ameri- 
ca the young priest devoted his time and 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 37 

his talents to the ministry and works of 
charity, and many a town still points with 
pride to spots hallowed by the recollec- 
tion of the great Pope. In one of his 
journeys across the continent, he found 
an English officer named Miller, in a 
wretched pampa inn, tossing in a raging 
fever. The good priest, allowing his com- 
panions to proceed, remained to nurse the 
stranger, nor did he leave the officer till 
he was well recovered. 

At another time in Chili, he found an 
aged man dying in a wretched hut amid 
his large destitute family. The compas- 
sionate priest encamped near them, and 
finding the disease beyond control, re- 
mained to instruct and console him. He 
was rewarded for his care by baptizing 
the dying man and his whole family. 
Soon after, this Indian patriarch died in 
the arms of the noble Italian priest. 

He then prepared him for the grave, 
giving part of his own clothing, and com- 



38 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



initted his body to the earth with the 
rites of the Church. After erecting a 
cross above it, he relieved the wants of 
the afflicted family, and continued his way 
loaded with their blessings. So lavish 
was he in his deeds of charity, that he 
gave away his whole personal income. 

His stay in Chili showed him the diffi- 
culties that were to beset religion in the 
new republics, each of which claimed to 
succeed to all privileges ever granted by 
the Holy See to the kings of Spain when 
those monarchs were regarded as pillars 
of the Church. Monsignor Muzi, after 
nearly two. years', endeavor to revive reli- 
gion and perfect the new organization of 
dioceses, resolved to return. The Chilian 
government made no provision for the 
delegation, questioned its powers, and 
hampered in every way the efforts of 
Archbishop Muzi. Religious houses had 
been suppressed, and on every side regu- 
lar priests driven from their convents 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 39 

were found unable any longer to maintain 
their community life or follow their rule. 
To these Archbishop Muzi granted liberty 
to become secular priests. Even at this 
the Chilian government took umbrage. 

The failure of the mission to restore 
religious order in Chili augured ill for 
other parts of Spanish America, but the 
Prefect Apostolic resolved to make the 
effort in Peru. The mission embarked at 
Santiago for Lima in a Chilian schooner. 
Again storms seemed to pursue them. 
Their pilot, unfit for his post, was unable 
to keep the vessel olf the rocky shore, and 
danger menaced all, when the fishing-boat 
of a worthy man named Bako came to 
their relief, and piloted them safely into 
the port of Arica. The next day the 
canon Mastai visited the humble seaside 
cabin of his deliverer, and gave him a 
purse containing four hundred dollars. 
Nor did he soon forget the service. When 
raised to the chair of Peter, he sent his 



40 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

portrait and a sum equal to his first gift 
to Bako. The good fisherman set up the 
picture to receive all honor: but bless- 
ings had come with the first gift. He 
was well off, and distributed the second 
gift among the poor in the name of Pope 
Pius IX. 

The envoys of the Holy See found Peru 
as ill-disposed as Chili had proved. They 
returned to Chili, and as the Heloise 
was at Valparaiso, they re-embarked on 
her, and sailing around Cape Horn, were 
once more on the ocean way, reaching 
Genoa on the 5th of June, 1825. 

On his return to Rome after his Ameri- 
can mission, the priest Mastai Ferretti 
found that new honors awaited him. His 
zeal in discharging the duties of his state 
and of any post committed to him showed 
that he was destined to serve the Church 
in many and varied capacities. The ex- 
perience acquired during his travels and 
residence in the Spanish American repub- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 41 

lies was to be of great service in the per- 
plexing questions which were from time 
to time laid before the Holy See. 

He was made canon of the Church of 
Santa Maria in Via Lata, and in 1825 
Pope Leo XII. appointed him president of 
the commission which directed the hos- 
pice of San Michele, a vast establishment 
in the Trastevere, near the Porta Portese, 
founded by Pope Innocent X. as a refuge 
for homeless children. Later Popes en- 
larged and endowed the institution, add- 
ing departments for other objects of char- 
ity, so that at this time San Michele was a 
refuge open to every form of human mis- 
ery, but at the same time a training 
school for all mechanical trades, and even 
a school of line art. 

When Canon Mastai Ferretti assumed 
the direction this great establishment was 
in a critical condition. Mismanagement 
had nearly produced bankruptcy. He re- 
formed the whole operation of the institu- 



42 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

tion, evincing remarkable administrative 
abilities. Though his sense of justice 
prompted him to a new and liberal meas 
ure, by which the apprentices now re- 
ceive a part of their earnings, this did 
not prevent the director from increasing 
the revenue so as to escape all danger, 
and place the hospice in a position of ease. 
"The prudence with which he discharged 
the laborious functions of that office is 
yet gratefully remembered by those who 
were then acquainted with the institu- 
tion." But it may be added that he used 
his own resources without stint, remark- 
ing: "What is property good for in the 
hands of a priest, except to be devoted 
seasonably in the service of charity?" 

The humble priest, so devoted to the 
forsaken young, was left among them for 
about twenty months, when Pope Leo 
XII. made the young canon one of his 
domestic prelates, and resolved to give 
his abilities a wider field. He preconized 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 43 

Monsignor John Mary Mastai Ferretti, 
Archbishop of Spoleto. 

The very day of his preconization he 
went to visit his old friends at the Tata 
Giovanni, and then withdrew to solitude 
to prepare for the episcopal consecration, 
which he received on Whitsunday, 1827,* 
in "the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli, 
from the hands of Cardinal Castiglioni, 
afterwards Pope Pius VIII. He said 
his first mass as bishop, as he had his 
first mass as priest, in the Church of St. 
Anne, the chapel of his children at Tata 
Giovanni. He then received the pallium 
from the hands of the Pope, and address- 
ing a pastoral letter to his flock, set out 
for his episcopal city. 

He was not rich, being only a younger 
son of a noble but by no means wealthy 
family : he had held no lucrative prefer- 
ments, and though a strict and judicious 
administrator of public trusts, he could 
not keep aught for himself. He had given 



44 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX 

to the poor and in good works so free- 
ly that he had to sell a little property 
he owned and borrow money in order 
to meet the expenses of his installation. 

Spoleto, the capital of a province, 
afforded a wide field for the zeal and 
energy of the new archbishop. Much 
was to be done to revive piety amid 
people whose faith was weakened by 
revolutionary ideas and secret societies. 
Soon missions were given in all the par- 
ishes,' confraternities established, and a 
new life infused. 

In one of his earliest good works we 
see the influence of the holy work in 
whicli he had been so long engaged. He 
founded a large orphan asylum with a 
manual labor school to train poor orphans 
to useful trades, so that they might be 
above the temptations of want. This es- 
tablishment was so endowed as to remain 
a monument of his zeal and love of the 
poor. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 45 

The election of Gregory XVI. in Feb- 
ruary, 1831, was seized upon by malcon- 
tents, who, inspired by the French revolu- 
tion of the preceding year, now sought to 
overthrow the existing governments in 
Italy. 

While Archbishop Mastai Ferretti act- 
ed the part of a father to his clergy, en- 
couraging the desponding, consoling the 
unhappy, arousing the torpid, his diocese 
thus became the scene of one of those 
popular outbreaks which secret societies 
have made so frequent in the nineteenth 
century. Generally a few daring and 
active men terrorize the quiet, and over- 
throw established order only to place 
unscrupulous men in power. 

The insurgents of the province, under 
Sercognarri, were soon routed and scat- 
tered by the Austrian troops, and came in 
full flight to Spoleto to seek a refuge and 
food. Rebels as they were to the Sove- 
reign Pontiff, the archbishop sought to 



46 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

save them. He went out to the Austrian 
general who was in pursuit of the fugi- 
tive revolutionists, and induced him to 
halt, promising to disarm them himself. 
He then proceeded to the camp of the in- 
surgents, and after showing them in the 
most convincing language the extent of 
their crime, he induced them to lay down 
their arms, several thousand muskets, and 
five pieces of artillery. Money was then 
distributed among them to meet their im- 
mediate wants, but confiding rather in this 
brave archbishop than in their own lead- 
ers, they asked to receive the money di- 
rectly from his hands. 

Two of the Bonaparte family, forget- 
ting the debt of honor they owed to the 
Papacy, took part in this insurrection. 
One died while endeavoring to escape 
through the unhealthy marshes; the 
other, the future Napoleon III., is said 
to have avoided a like fate or a dungeon 
by the aid of the Archbishop of Spoleto. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 47 

The insurrection was quelled. It had 
not been without sympathizers in the city 
of Spoleto. The zealous chief of the po- 
lice had pierced the vail of the conspiracy 
and brought to the archbishop a list of 
the accomplices. "My worthy sir," ex- 
claimed the archbishop, " you do not un- 
derstand your profession or mine. When 
a wolf wishes to devour the sheep he does 
not warn the shepherd." The list unread 
and unopened was soon burning before 
his eyes. 

The archbishop had remained at his 
post amid all the troubles, but the civil 
authorities of Perugia and Spoleto fled. 
Cardinal Bernetti, then Secretary of State, 
at once confided to the archbishop the 
command of the two provinces. His 
ability and popularity were evinced by 
the prompt restoration of order through- 
out that part of the Papal States. 

In January, 1832, another affliction fell 
upon the province. A desolating earth- 



48 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



quake spread misery throughout the dis- 
trict of Spoleto. Wherever the distress 
was greatest, the good archbishop was 
found "bearing; aid and consolation to the 
homeless, who were endeavoring to erect 
rude shelters to cover them, and to obtain 
food and other necessaries of life. His 
energetic charity, in spite of his own pov- 
erty, relieved promptly and efficiently. 
He sought alms everywhere. 

In view of the great virtues and great 
administrative ability of Archbishop Mas- 
tai Ferretti, Pope Gregory XVI., on 
the 17th of December, 1832, translated 
him to the more important episcopal see 
of Imola, which had just been resigned 
by Cardinal Giustiniani. 

Archbishop Mastai Ferretti left Spoleto 
amid the regrets of his clergy and people. 
At Imola he was received with joy. He 
soon showed his wonted energy, and his 
love for the poor and the outcast. His 
life seems to have been devoted to the 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 49 

idea that, as modern society degrades, de- 
moralizes, and then rejects these victims, 
the Church should ever be on the alert 
to save and restore them to God. He 
established an orphan home where a num- 
ber of boys were to be sheltered and 
instructed, going every day to workshops 
where, as apprentices, they acquired some 
useful trade. He called in the Sisters of 
Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, and 
to them committed the care of a conser- 
vatory for orphan girls, as well as of an 
academy and free school, which rendered 
great service. A hospital and an asylum 
for the deaf and dumb were established 
and placed under the direction of the 
same sisters. 

But' his care was not confined merely 
to the bodily wants. He founded a pre- 
paratory seminary for students whose lim- 
ited means prevented them entering the 
Episcopal Seminary, thus enabling them 

to pursue their studies and follow their 
3 



50 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

vocation. While he prepared to recruit 
the ranks of the clergy, he provided 
for the veterans, by founding a home for 
aged and infirm priests. For those still 
laboring in the vineyard, he established a 
house of retreat, where at stated times, in 
turn, part of his clergy came to follow the 
spiritual exercises for several days, that, 
acquiring new light and strength from 
silent prayer, they might, discharge more 
effectually their holy mission among their 
flocks. He also established a system 6f 
Conferences on Holy Scripture, with wise 
regulations, and always presided in per- 
son at the meetings. 

The condition of the churches of his 
diocese was not overlooked. He repaired 
many, restored the episcopal residence, 
and completed the facade of the cathe- 
dral. 

It excited no astonishment when it be- 
came known that Pope Gregory XVI. 
intended to raise the good Archbishop 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 51 

of Imola to the puq;)le. He was, in fact, 
reserved in petto, in the consistory of the 
23d of December, 1839, and proclaimed 
cardinal on the 14th of December in the 
ensiling year. While his duties as a 
member of the Sacred College, that coun- 
cil of the Pope and Senate of the Church, 
increased his cares and labors, they did 
not divert his mind from the wants of his 
diocese. He established a refuge for fe- 
male penitents, or as he himself expressed 
it, a home for "lost daughters of the 
world soliciting admission into the fold 
of Jesus." From his own private means 
he purchased a suitable building and 
fitted it for their reception. For its 
direction he selected the Sisters of our 
Lady of the Grood Shepherd, and in 1845, 
obtained a colony of that community from 
the mother-house at Angers, in France. 

As bishop and cardinal, his habit of 
life was extremely simple ; his income was 
expended almost entirely in good works, 



52 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS LX. 



so that liis constant charities often left 
him without means. On one occasion a 
poor woman applied to him for alms, and 
her distress was so evident that he wished 
to relieve her; but he searched in vain 
for any money. Taking a silver dish 
from his table, he told her to pawn it at 
the Mount of Piety, and obtain means to 
relieve her wants. "I can at any time 
redeem it," said the good cardinal. His 
attendant soon missing the article, made 
search in vain, and came to report that it 
had been stolen; the cardinal's confusion 
betrayed his secret, and his attendant 
knew by experience that the piece of 
plate had been sacrificed at the call of 
charity. 

Nor is this the only incident of the 
kind related. In the February follow- 
ing, an event occurred, in which his zeal 
and courage were displayed. Just as the 
shades of night were gathering over the 
city, the Cardinal, as was his habitual 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 53 

practice, entered his cathedral to pay a 
visit to our Lord in the Blessed Sacra- 
ment. The holy calm of the hour and the 
place were suddenly broken by the sacris- 
tan, who rushed towards the cardinal 
imploring him to hasten for God's sake, 
as they were murdering a man in the 
sacristy. 

He knew his archbishop well, when he 
thus summoned him to the midst of dan- 
ger, and did not urge him to provide for 
his own safety. The cardinal hastening 
to the vestry, found a youth of twenty 
stretched on a bench, bleeding from a dan- 
gerous bayonet wound. He had fled to 
the church for protection and sank there. 
Scarcely had Cardinal Mastai reached his 
side when three armed men burst in, still 
thirsting for their victim's blood. The 
cardinal confronted the armed ruffians, 
and presenting his pectoral cross, com- 
manded them to retire. Hardened as they 
were, they quailed before the decisive 



54 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

mien and the holy fire that lighted up 
the gentle face of the cardinal bishop. 
They slunk away, leaving him to minister 
to their victim, and rally the fast-vanish- 
ing vital strength. 

In the early part of June, 1846, while 
Cardinal Mastai was making a spiritual 
retreat with many of his priests, he re- 
ceived the announcement of the death of 
Pope Gregory XVI. He returned to his 
episcopal residence, and after offering up 
a solemn requiem for the repose of the 
soul of the late sovereign Pontiff, repaired 
to Rome. He entered the capital of the 
Christian world on the 12th of June, and 
two days afterwards he, with the other 
members of the Sacred College of Cardi- 
nals, entered the Conclave, or Assembly 
for the election of a sovereign Pontiff. 



THE AEMS OF POPE PIUS IX. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 57 



CHAPTER II. 

The Election. — Cardinal Mastai Fereetti 
chosen Pope. — The Ordinance of Am- 
nesty. — The Memorandum of 1831. — 
Popularity of Pius IX. at Home and 
Abroad.— Opinions of American States- 
men as to the Pope. 

The election of a sovereign Pontiff has 
excited the wonder of those who study 
the perplexed systems of human institu- 
tions. The whole course is so free from 
all that can hamper the cardinals in 
their perfect freedom of action. The 
choice is so fully their own that even in 
this men should discern the overruling 
hand of God. 

From all parts to which the tidings of 
the late Pope's death have reached, the 
cardinals come to Home. The people 
and the clergy watch with interest these 



58 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

venerable men ; many advanced in years, 
illustrious for long services rendered to 
the Church, holy bishops, learned doctors, 
able in council or in government. One of 
them will remain in Rome as sovereign 
Pontiff, the rest resume their accustomed 
duties. 

It is vain to attempt to pierce the 
secrets of the future, or decide on whom 
the choice will ultimately fall. But the 
pious look for some outward manifesta- 
tion of the divine will. As the carriage 
of Cardinal Mastai Ferretti passed through 
Fossombrone, an episcopal city in the del- 
egation of Urbino and Pesaro, the faith- 
ful gathered around to scrutinize the face 
of the occupant, when a white dove sail- 
ing through the air alighted on the car- 
riage. At once the cry arose : " Evviva ! 
evviva ! behold the Pope ! " But thoughts 
of his elevation could scarcely have en- 
tered the mind of one so young and so re- 
cently raised to the cardinalate. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 59 

The course of the election is simple, 
and as thoughtful Protestant writers have 
admitted, better calculated than any other 
the world has ever seen to secure the real 
free choice of those electing. When a Pope 
expires the cardinal camerlingo, with the 
apostolic notaries and attendants, attests 
the fact, and the seal of the fisherman, the 
official seal used by the Pope, is broken. 
The body of the deceased pontiff then lies 
in state in St. Peter's, for nine days, when 
after a solemn mass of requiem it is depos- 
ited in a temporary tomb. 

The next day the cardinals in Rome as- 
semble in St. Peter's, and after a solemn 
mass to invoke the guidance of the Holy 
Ghost, they enter the Conclave. For cen- 
turies the Conclave or Assembly of Car- 
dinals to elect a Pope has been held in the 
Quirinal palace. Here in different apart- 
ments after the death of Pope Gregory 
XVI. fifty-four cardinals and their attend- 
ants were lodged, on Sunday, June 14, 



60 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

1846. The bulls regulating the election 
of a sovereign Pontiff were read, and all 
the cardinals swore to observe them. All 
windows opening from without and all 
entrances except one were then walled up, 
and that one had two locks — one inside 
and one without. This door is opened only 
to allow any cardinal who falls sick to 
retire: or to admit any who arrive at a 
later day. A small window allows the 
approach of the ambassadors of France, 
Spain, and Austria, who have each claimed 
the right to object to one proposed cardi- 
nal. 

Meanwhile masses were constantly of- 
fered, the Blessed Sacrament was exposed 
in the churches, and visited by the confra- 
ternities, clergy, and people, all praying 
fervently to God to direct the choice of 
the cardinals. 

Every day — morning at six o'clock and 
afternoon at two — the cardinals assembled 
in the chapel for the scrutiny. In the 



1 


1 
















LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 61 

middle of the Pauline chapel stood two 
chalices to receive the votes. Each bal- 
lot is written and folded in a prescribed 
form, and each cardinal as he deposited it 
read the oath prescribed : " I call to wit- 
ness God who will be my judge, that 
I choose the person before God, whom I 
judge ought to be elected, and that I 
will do the same in acceding." Cardinal 
Prince Altieri first proposed the name of 
Cardinal Mastai Ferretti, and the scrutiny 
of the first ballots showed that he had re- 
ceived more votes than any other. But 
two-thirds of the whole number of living; 
cardinals are required for a choice. The 
voting went on. At each scrutiny the 
votes in his favor increased, and on Mon- 
day it became evident that the choice of 
the Sacred College would center on him. 
The prospect filled him with alarm, and 
he SDent the nicht in nravpr bpo'cnno* God 
to avert the burden from him. 

The next morning he was appointed to 

















62 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



open the ballots. As lie did so lie saw 
his own name on almost every paper that 
he unfolded. He could not complete the 
task. In a voice broken by emotion, he 
exclaimed : " Brethren, spare me, take 
pity on my weakness, I am unworthy." 
The scrutiny completed at last showed 
that he had received the requisite number 
of votes. A Pope had been elected be- 
fore a single ambassador, notified by his 
sovereign, had approached the window. 

The scrutators declared his name, the 
master of ceremonies and the secretary 
summoned by the junior cardinal deacon 
entered. Cardinal Mastai knelt to adore 
God who had brought him face to face 
with an awful responsibility for His own 
glory. The cardinals, a moment before 
his equals, withdrew, leaving him alone 
with God. When he arose, Cardinal 
Macchi, the subdean, with two others, ad- 
vanced before him and asked whether he 
accepted the election. Deeply moved, the 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 63 

newly elected Pope answered that he sub- 
mitted to the will of God. Then the bal- 
dachinos were taken down from above the 
seats of all the other cardinals, and the 
cardinals who had sat on either side of 
him withdrew. When Cardinal Macchi 
asked him what name he intended to 
take, the words " Pius IX." were uttered 
for the first time. 

Two cardinal deacons then conducted 
him behind the high altar, where he as- 
sumed the pontifical habit, and then in 
front of the altar he received the homage 
of the cardinals, and the ring of the fisher- 
man was placed on his hand. 

After this the first cardinal deacon, 
while the choir sang JEcce sacerdos mag- 
nus, went out on the balcony over the en- 
trance to the palace and proclaimed the 
election to the people, who had already 
gathered there. "I announce to you a 
great joy," he said. " We have as Pope the 
most eminent and the most Reverend John 



64 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



Mary, Cardinal of the Eoman Church, 
Mastai Ferretti, who has taken the name 
of Pius IX." 

Loud shouts of joy rose up from the 
people, the cannon of the castle of St. 
Angelo thundered forth, the bells of 
Rome rang out a peal of joy, and a gen- 
eral holiday ensued. 

As the cardinals advanced on the bal- 
cony, leaving an open space, the people 
-all looked up to see the scarcely known 
Bishop of Imola. The mild and benignant 
countenance won all . hearts : and when 
with streaming eyes he lifted up his 
hands to heaven, and then extended them 
in benediction over his people, the cry 
went up : " We have a Pope, he loves us ! 
he is our father ! " He announced his 
elevation to his brothers in Sinigaglia in 
these modest words : 

" Rome, June 16, at I past 11, p. m. 
" The Blessed God, who humbles and 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 65 

exalts, lias been pleased to raise me from 
insignificance to the most sublime dignity 
ou earth. May His holy will be ever 
done. I am sensible to a certain extent of 
the immense weight of such a charge, and 
I also feel my utter incapacity, not to say, 
the entire nullity of my powers. Cause 
prayers to be offered, and do you also 
pray for me. The conclave has lasted 
forty-eight hours. If the city should wish 
to make any public demonstration on 
the occasion, I request that you will take 
measures — indeed I desire it — that the 
whole sum. so destined be applied to pur- 
poses which may be judged useful to the 
city, by the chief magistrate and the 
council. As to yourselves, my dear broth- 
ers, I embrace you with all my heart in 
Jesus Christ : and far from exulting, take 
pity on your brother, who gives you all 
his apostolic blessing." 

On Sunday, June -21st, 1846, he was 



66 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



borne to St. Peter's, where the chapter 
received him at the door, singing Tu es 
Petrus. After kneeling in prayer "before 
the altar of the Blessed Sacrament, he re- 
ceived the homage of the cardinals be- 
neath the chair of Saint Peter, whose suc- 
cessor he is. Then he assumed the ponti- 
fical vestments, and he moved in pro- 
cession around the choir of the mighty 
basilica, till he reached the chapel of St. 
Processus and St. Martinianus, where the 
master of ceremonies lighted a bunch of 
flax, saying : " Holy Father, thus passeth 
the glory of the world." On his return 
to the altar mass began. During it a car- 
dinal descended to the tomb of the apos- 
tles, and intoned an ancient litany, which 
seemed to be the prayer of all the past 
ages' of Christendom welling up from the 
grave to heaven. After the mass the 
Pope received the insignia of Pontiff and 
King. 

The triple crown was placed on his 



SAINT PETER'S CHAIR AT ROME. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 69 

head in the Loggia of the Vatican by the 
first cardinal deacon. 

Pius IX. began his wonderful reign, 
which was to be unexampled in length, 
remarkable in the great acts performed, 
in the great sufferings undergone. 

His first acts showed his love of his 
people. Dowries for poor girls were dis- 
tributed in all the churches of Rome and 
the vicinity; liberal alms were given to 
the poor, the tools and necessary objects 
which poverty had forced many to pawn 
at the " Pious Mounts," those loan offices 
of Catholic Rome, were redeemed and re- 
stored ; the obligations of poor debtors in 
the prisons were paid. 

The government of his states was now 
his concern. Summoned thus suddenly to 
grasp the reins of power, his policy was 
to be adopted and laid out. His heart 
prompted him to adopt the mild and gen- 
tle course which had proved successful in 
his brief civil authority at SjDoleto. Many 



70 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



Romans implicated in revolutionary at- 
tempts were in exile. He resolved to be- 
gin by an amnesty that would permit 
these to return, and he trusted to win 
all. by a wise and moderate administra- 
tion. 

A month after his elevation, he issued, 
July 16, 1846, an ordinance of amnesty. 
This remarkable document, the glorious ini- 
tiatory of the political acts of Pope Pius 
IX., remitted the remainder of the term of 
punishment of all in prison for political 
offenses, with no condition except that of 
a solemn declaration in writing on their 
honor, that they would not abuse the 
favor, and that they would in future live 
as dutiful subjects. 

Those in exile, through their own choice, 
or by legal sentence, were to be admitted 
to pardon within a year, by applying to a 
papal nuncio. 

All who were under the supervision of 
the police, or already indicted, were re- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 71 

lieved at once from further prosecution. 
Of all indeed who had been guilty of 
practices against the state, none were ex- 
cepted from the amnesty except thirty- 
nine, ecclesiastics or persons who had 
held civil or military office, and even for 
these the j)ath of reparation was thrown 
open. 

This was but one step in his course to 
gain the goodwill of his people, and to 
disarm all pretext of discontent. He 
personally inquired into and improved the 
administration of the public departments ; 
he rigorously examined into the manage- 
ment of hospitals, prisons, and religious 
institutions, and enforced needed reforms ; 
he punished fraud and extortion with 
great severity ; he promoted industry by 
public works and by special rewards ; he 
introduced reforms into the revenue and 
treasury departments; he remitted some 
taxes and diminished others; he author- 
ized the establishment of railroads and 



72 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



the introduction of gas for lighting the 
cities ; he appointed laymen to numbers 
of offices not previously open to them, and 
gave a wide freedom to the press, reserv- 
ing only a moderate censorship. 

All these reforms he crowned by pro- 
posing, in April, 1847, the establishment 
of a council composed of delegates from 
the various provinces, a senate whom he 
might consult and advise as to the best 
measures for the good of the people. 

The course of the Pope found many 
opponents. Among the cardinals and 
others long connected with the govern- 
ment, habituated to other principles, these 
steps were regarded as highly danger- 
ous and sure to lead to disastrous re- 
sults. 

A few years previous, in 1831, several 
of the European powers had deemed it 
not unwise to interfere in the government 
of the Papal States. The schismatical 
Greek emperor of Russia, the Protestant 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS LX. 73 

kings of England and Prussia, seconded 
by the Catholic Emperor of Austria, and 
king of France, had laid before the Pope 
a programme of reforms which they ad- 
vised, a programme drawn up not by an 
Italian who might know the real wants 
of the case, but by a fanatical German 
Protestant. 

Now Pius IX., fully aware of the condi- 
tion of his States, entered on the path of 
reform, and a general alarm ensued. Aus- 
tria, one of the very powers to the Mem- 
orandum of 1831, now saw clanger to 
her Italian power in the course of Pius 
IX. France seems to have measured the 
dynasty of Orleans by the Pontificate of 
Gregory XVI., and now rejected Louis 
Philippe ; Protestant and Greek alike be- 
held with chagrin rational liberty estab- 
lished in the Koman States. Not one of 
them cordially supported the Pope. 

The revolutionary party beheld his 

course with dismay. Pius DC was re- 
4 



74 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



moving every pretext for their plots and 
conspiracies. They saw with alarm their 
old dupes promising devotion to Pius IX. : 
they saw, too, that open opposition would 
then be fruitless. They attempted by 
flattery and by promises to make him the 
tool of their an ti- Christian war. 

Pius IX. was daily winning the hearts 
of the people. He went through Home 
on foot with a small retinue. One day, 
while on his way from the Quirinal to the 
chapel of a Visitation convent where he 
was to say mass, a little boy ran up and 
asked him : " Are you the Pope ? " " Yes, 
my little friend, I am." " I have no fa- 
ther," said the boy. " I will be a father 
to you," said the Pope, who, finding the 
child to be really an orphan, proved really 
a father, educating and providing for 
him. 

Children had always seen in him a 
friend and protector. On one occasion, 
the Pope heard some confusion among the 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 75 

Swiss guards, and ascertained that a boy 
was trying to push his way through them 
in order to present a petition to the Pope. 
The little fellow's appeal was soon in the 
hands of the sovereign Pontiff. In the 
language of his age, the boy told of his 
stiwetfins: widowed mother, and of a hard- 
hearted landlord who was about to evict 
them; with the simplicity of a child, he 
asked the Pope to lend him, four dollars 
to save his mother from being put into 
the street, promising to repay it when he 
was old enough to earn money. The 
kind-hearted Pope told him to return the 
next day, and having by inquiry ascer- 
tained that little Paul's story was true, 
gave him, when he reappeared, ten dollars 
for his mother. The honest little fellow 
returned six, saying he had not asked for 
so much. "Take them again, my good 
boy," said the Pope, "and tell your mo- 
ther that I will look after her for the 
future." 



76 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



No ruler ever did more to endear him- 
self to his people, or to assure them the 
best of governments. All that the great 
powers had advised was granted, and 
more. All that the better class of citi- 
zens had ever desired was established. 
Open opposition was at first more than 
the crafty statesman or the infidel revolu- 
tionist, both equally stimulated by hatred 
of the Church, durst venture upon. The 
world rang plaudits on the course of the 
liberal Pope. Meetings were held in 
many parts to express sympathy with 
Pius IX. To one held in New York city, 
where the "Popular Hymn of Pius IX.," 
by Rossini, was sung enthusiastically, 
Martin Van Buren, ex-President of the 
United States, wrote: "The position re- 
cently taken by Pope Pius, and which has 
been hitherto so nobly sustained by the 
people of Italy, has not only been in the 
highest degree patriotic, but, what is 
scarcely less important, been sustained by 



j LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 77 

a steady hand." " Regarded only as the 
political head of a State., laboring in be- 
half of the enfranchisement and conse- 
quent happiness of the people, the sove- 
reign Pontiff justly claims the best wishes^ 
the hearty cheers, and all proper co-opera- 
tion of the friends of reform, in whatever 
country they may reside, or to whatever 
sect or class they may belong." Words 
which, coming from one who had himself 
been the elected head of a great nation, 
deserve to be remembered in view of sub- 
sequent events. 

James Buchanan, who was to hold the 
same lofty position, wrote : 

" I have watched with intense anxiety 
the movements of Pius IX., in the difficult 
and dangerous circumstances by which he 
is surrounded, and, in my opinion, they 
have been marked with consummate wis- 
dom and prudence. Firm without being 
rash, liberal without proceeding to such 
extremes as might endanger the success 



78 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

©f his glorious mission, lie seems to be an 
instrument destined by Providence to ac- 
complish the political regeneration of his 
country." 

Similar opinions were expressed by 
Samuel J. Tilden, elected also to the presi- 
dency in more recent times. "It is re- 
lated," said he, " of the truly illustrious 
ruler whom we are here to honor, that, 
laying his hand upon the New Testament, 
4 My people,' said he, 'may expect justice 
and mercy from me, for my only guide is 
this book' The fruits of this enlightened 
resolution are those reforms of institu- 
tions and administration which have filled 
Italy with gladness." " Difference of re- 
ligious faith shall not restrain me from 
rendering the homage of just applause to 
acts so beneficent, to an example so valua- 
ble in the extent as well as the nature of 
its influence ; so appropriate to a man 
who is at once a religious and a civil 
chief : and so worthy of the head of a 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 79 

venerable Church, in whose bosom was 
preserved, during the long, dark period 
when letters and the arts were lost, the 
germs of religious truth and representa- 
tive government." 



CHAPTER III. 

Pius IX. and the Church at Large. — His First 
Encyclical. — Promotion of Cardinals. 
— The Pope in the Pulpit. — Ecclesias- 
tical Eeforms. — Ireland. ■ — America. — 
Eeligious Orders. 

We have dwelt upon the early acts of 
Pope Pius IX. in the government of the 
States which had for so many centuries 
been under the sway of the sovereign 
Pontiffs, and had thus enjoyed freedom 
and peace, while all around were suffer- 
ing under tyranny and oppression. But 
though the whole world applauded the 
civil reforms, the luster of his Pontificate 



80 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



comes from his higher quality as head of 
the universal Church. 

As a bishop devoted to his flock, with 
experience in two different dioceses, know- 
ing by personal inspection the wants of 
the Church in transatlantic countries as 
well as in Europe, Pius IX. brought to 
the sovereign Pontificate this experience, 
with deep personal piety, intense zeal, and 
a vigilance and love of discipline which 
were destined to revive a spirit of devotion 
throughout the Church in times when 
faith, hope, and charity alike seemed to be 
growing cold. 

His first great act, as head of the 
Church, addressed to the Catholic hier- 
archy throughout the world, and through 
them to the clergy and faithful of every 
race and clime, was his Encyclical Letter 
of November 9th, 1846. It was the first 
of a Ions* series „of similar documents 
which, by their unction, their piety, and 
their firmness in the cause of religion and 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 81 

order, for more than a quarter of a cen- 
tury stimulated the zeal and devotion of 
Catholics. 

After announcing his unexpected eleva- 
tion and the despondency that would have 
overwhelmed him had he not placed his 
hope in Grod his salvation, he expresses 
his consolation in having the bishops as 
companions and coadjutors. He addresses 
them to inflame their piety, that, with even 
more than their wonted alacrity, vigilance, 
and earnestness, they should keep the 
night watch over their flocks, and combat 
with fortitude and constancy the enemy 
of souls. 

He called attention to the fierce and 
implacable war waged on Catholicity by 
concerted action, seeking to quench the 
light of faith in the minds of men, as well 
as to corrupt their hearts. To accomplish 
this, some extolled human reason at the 
expense of Christ's most holy faith, as 
though faith and reason, flowing from one 



82 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX, 



and the same fountain of immutable and 
eternal truth, could > disagree. Others 
claimed to subject the Word of God to 
their own reason, as though' he had not 
constituted a living authority to expound 
and define it. The sovereign Pontiff then 
earnestly appeals to their eminent piety to 
exert themselves with all solicitude and 
zeal, in exhorting the faithful not to suffer 
themselves to be led away under any spe- 
cious pretexts of human progress. 

He warns them against the secret so- 
cieties condemned by so many sovereign 
Pontiffs, and to the religious indifference 
so constantly inculcated ; against the per- 
verse theories of education, the flood of 
bad books and periodicals, depraving men 
and banishing from their hearts all reli- 
gious influences. 

To counteract all these evils, he urges 
the bishops to encourage fidelity to the 
Church, not to desist preaching the Word 
of God, and to labor to foim a clergy 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 85 

whose gravity of manners, integrity of 
life, holiness, and learning may shine 
forth, accomplishing this by great care in 
their training and in their selection, as well 
as by frequent retreats after they are ad- 
mitted to the priesthood. 

Commending himself to their earnest 
prayers, and the intercession of the Blessed 
Virgin Immaculate and all the saints, 
the pious Pontiff imparted to the bishops, 
and the clergy and faithful committed to 
their charge, his apostolic benediction. 

In order to unite the world in prayer 
in the difficulties which he well saw the 
Church must soon experience in its head 
and its members, the Pope soon after, by 
Apostolic Letters of the 2 2d of November, 
proclaimed an indulgence in form of a 
Jubilee to all who visited, with the usual 
conditions of confession and communion 
and prayers for the intention of the sove- 
reign Pontiff, the churches of St. Peter's, 
St. John Lateran, and St. Mary Major, or, 



86 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

in places remote from the holy city, three 
churches appointed by the bishop of the 
diocese. 

In his first promotion of cardinals at 
the consistory held on the 21st of Decem- 
ber, 1846, he admitted to the Sacred Col- 
lege Cajetan Baluffi, his successor in the 
see of Imola, and Peter Marini, of the or- 
der of deacons, reserving in petto two 
others, Joseph Pecci, Bishop of Gubbio, 
and Joseph Bofondi, whose nomination 
was published, in the following June. In 
this latter month his second promotion of 
cardinals added to the Sacred College 
James Antonelli, of the order of deacons, 
eminent for his services as minister of 
finance and prime minister of Pius IX. ; 
James M. A. C. Du Pont, Archbishop of 
Bourges; Peter Giraud, Archbishop of 
Cambray, and Charles Vizardelli. 

The encyclical aroused the zeal of the 
bishops to encourage the secular clergy in 
their resjDective dioceses to consider seri- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 87 

ously the ministry which they had re- 
ceived from God, in order to fulfill its 
obligations exactly, as well as to train up, 
by careful schooling of the mind and 
heart, the young aspirants to the priest- 
hood, that, imbued with sacred sciences, 
the tradition of the Church, and the doc- 
trines of the holy fathers, they might, in 
due season, cultivate the vineyard of the 
Lord and fight his battles. There was 
still another object of his care : the great 
family of the religious orders, bodies 
created in seasons of the Church's want 
and trial, for the sanctification of the 
members, and to afford the secular clergy 
aid in their ministry. These bodies, where 
true to their institute, had rendered incal- 
culable service, and the number of saints 
which they had produced from age to 
age showed how the Spirit of God was 
among them; but while in their fervor 
they were thus a consolation to the 
Church, on the contrary, where relaxa- 



88 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

tion, tepidity, and worldliness crept in, 
these orders became a source of scandal 
to the faithful, and an object of reproach 
and triumph for the enemies of the 
Church. Hence one great object of Pins 
IX., on his accession, was to revive the 
true spirit in the various religious orders. 

The city of Rome soon felt that the 
sovereign Pontiff was full of zeal and 
energy, in reforming abuses, in encourag- 
ing the bishops and clergy, and in set- 
ting an example. As he moved through 
Rome, his heart was afflicted at the in- 
creasing profanity among working men, 
and their evident neglect of the laws of 
the Church in regard to fasting and ab- 
stinence. One day he reproached the 
celebrated pulpit orator, Father Ventura, 
with neglecting to instruct the people on 
these points in his discourses. The great 
preacher declared that he had often made 
them the theme of his discourses, but that 
his words seemed to fall unheeded. "I 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 89 

would gladly make the attempt myself," 
said Pius IX., " but it is so long siuce a 
Pope has appeared in the pulpit, that I 
fear I shall not be more successful." 
" Your Holiness is mistaken," said Father 
Ventura; "the attachment of the people 
to your person is a guarantee that your 
words will be heard with the deepest 
attention." " You have decided it. I see 
that you are to preach on the last day of 
the octave of Epiphany, at the church of 
San Andrea della Valle. Let me take 
your place, but keep the matter a se- 
cret." 

On that day, January 13, 1847, Rome 
witnessed a spectacle not seen since the 
days of St. Gregory VII. A congregation 
gathered in the afternoon to listen to the 
words of the popular preacher, when to 
their wonder and their joy they beheld 
the Pope himself advance to the strada, 
which is the pulpit in Italian churches. 
The impulsive hearts gave vent to ex- 



90 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



clamations of surprise and joy. When 
silence was restored, he addressed them : 
" I cannot, without lively emotion, my 
beloved children, recall the tokens of love 
which you came to offer me on the first 
day of the year. My heart thanked you 
for your felicitations, and referring, as I 
justly should, to the honor of God, what 
you do for me, his unworthy vicar, I 
invited you to bless the name of our Lord 
in these words, 1 Blessed be the name of 
the Lord.' You all replied with an ac- 
cent of faith, 'Now and forever.' I re- 
mind you of this solemn engagement, for 
there are men in this city, the center 
of Catholicity, men, few indeed in num- 
ber, who profane the holy name of God 
by blasphemy. Do you all who are here 
at present receive this mission from me : 
Proclaim everywhere that I expect noth- 
ing from these men. They hurl against 
heaven the stone which will crush them 
in its fall. It is heaping up the measure 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 91 

of ingratitude to blaspheme the name of 
the common Father, who gives us life, and 
with life, all the blessings we enjoy. Tell 
those of my children who offend him by 
such outrages no longer to give such 
scandal in the holy city. I wish also to 
speak to you of the precept of fasting. 
A great many parents have told me of 
the sufferings they experience in behold- 
ing the demon of impurity exercise his 
ravages among the young men. Our Lord 
himself tells us in the gospel that by 
prayer and fasting is this devastating 
demon chained, who goes ravaging the 
earth, and who not only poisons the 
sources of the life of individuals, families, 
and all society, but who especially con- 
summates the ruin of immortal souls. 
After these two counsels, it remains for 
me to pray to God to bless you all: Lord, 
look down from heaven ; turn toward us 
thy quickening glance. Visit this vine- 
yard which thy right hand hath planted. 



92 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

It is thine, O Lord ; thou hast watered it 
with thy blood; thou hast preserved it. 
Visit it, not to punish the wicked, but to 
make them feel the sweet effects of thy 
mercy. Visit it to heal the wound of in- 
credulity which devours the world. Visit 
it, and visiting it remove that iron hand 
which weighs so heavily on it. Pour into 
the hearts of the rising generation those 
two dearest attributes of youth, modesty 
and docility. Extinguish those fatal ani- 
mosities which divide citizens and array 
them against each other. Visit it, O 
Lord, and visiting it warn the sentinels 
of Israel to give good example and arm 
themselves with divine strength and pru- 
dence to watch over the interests of the 
people committed to their care. Vouch- 
safe, O my God, to hear my prayer, and 
pour forth on this people, on this city, and 
on the whole world, thy sweetest benedic- 
tions ! " 

Pope Pius IX. showed his interest in the 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX 93 

Church in the United States by approving, 
on the 7th of February, 1847, the decrees 
of the Sixth Provincial Council of Balti- 
more, and by the erection of new sees at 
Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, and Galveston. 

To obviate the objections raised by un- 
scrupulous men he modified the ancient 
episcopal oath so as to remove even the 
shadow of an objection. In a letter is- 
sued some months later to Archbishop 
Eccleston, the sovereign Pontiff says to 
him and the bishops of the United 
States : " We are greatly rejoiced at the 
cheering testimony you have sent us of the 
very great and rapid increase of the Cath- 
olic religion in the United States. We 
warmly congratulate you on your virtue 
and labors. We freely promise you that 
nothing will be omitted on our part that 
can aid you, or be useful to the cause of 
the Church over which you preside." 

The fatherly heart of Pius IX. was 
moved by the terrible accounts of the 



94 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



famine which desolated Ireland, attended 
by a dread pestilence. He ordered pray- 
ers to be offered in behalf of the sufferers, 
and urged the clergy and people of his 
OAvn States as well as all who were visit- 
ing Rome from piety or curiosity to join 
in relieving a land so terribly afflicted. 
Large amounts were thus forwarded to 
the hierarchy in Ireland to distribute 
where the need was sorest. As the mis- 
ery continued, he issued on the 25th of 
March, 1847, an encyclical letter, ad- 
dressed to all patriarchs, primates, arch- 
bishops, and bishops, granting a plenary 
indulgence to all who united in prayer for 
three days for the afflicted kingdom, and 
approaching the sacraments, assisted the 
people of Ireland by the gifts of charity. 
He urged the prelates to stimulate the zeal 
of their people in alms-giving. "What, 
effort ought we not make," says the great 
Pope, " to raise up that nation now suffer- 
ing under such a disaster, when we know 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 95 

how great the fidelity of the clergy and 
people of Ireland is and always has been 
toward the Apostolic See; how in the 
most dangerous times their firmness in 
the profession of the Catholic religion has 
been conspicuous ; by what labors the 
clergy of Ireland have toiled for the 
propagation of the Catholic religion in 
the remotest regions of the world ! " 

The appeal did not fall unheeded. At 
the call of the Vicar of Christ prayers 
and alms were offered up in all parts for 
the suffering poor in Ireland. The death 
of the great Liberator, Daniel O'Connell, 
while on his way to Rome, and the arrival 
of his great heart in that city, where it 
was his wish that it should rest, tended 
also to deepen the interest in Ireland. On 
giving audience to the son of the deceased, 
Pius IX. pronounced a eulogy on Daniel 
O'Connell, and said: "Since I have been 
denied the happiness, so long desired, of 
embracing the hero of Christendom, let 



96 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

me at least have the consolation of em- 
bracing his son," and at the same time the 
Holy Father pressed him twice to his heart. 

Ireland and America were not alone in 
his thoughts. The position of the Catho- 
lics in Switzerland, Russia, and through- 
out the world engaged his attention. 

To carry out his views in regard to the 
religious orders, he issued on the 17th of 
June, 1847, an encyclical, addressed to 
the heads of all the religious orders in the 
Church, urging them to renewed efforts 
for the restoration of their rules with 
primitive fervor. He established a spe- 
cial congregation of cardinals to consider 
the condition of the religious orders. To 
those in Rome he gave his personal atten- 
tion in a way that soon convinced mem- 
bers of the religious orders that the Pope 
was serious in his great work. One even- 
ing, at a late hour, Pius IX. appeared at 
the door of a convent in Rome. The porter 
answered the summons gruffly and told 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



97 



the visitor that all were asleep, and that 
he must come the next day. When he 
recognized the white soutane of the Pope 
he was all confusion and opened in haste. 
The Pope inspected the convent and or- 
dered the roll of the community to be 
called. Two were found to be absent. 
On the pretext of the heat of the weather 
they had been allowed to go into the city 
to sleep. The Pope censured the prior for 
thus conniving at laxity of discipline, and 
the next day ordered the two religious to 
expiate their fault in a house of ecclesias- 
tical correction. 

Under the impulse thus given, a new 
fervor arose in all the religious bodies. 

In an allocution to the cardinals on the 
Consistory of the 17th of December, 1847, 
Pius IX. congratulated the sacred college 
on the renewal of a cordial understand- 
ing with Spain, by means of which he 
had been enabled to appoint a number of 

bishops in that country once so devoted 
5 



98 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



to the Church. He alluded too to the 
favorable appearance of the Catholic cause 
in Russia, and repudiated certain theories 
ascribed to him. Against religious indif- 
ferentism so zealously advocated in our 
days, and made as it were a state creed, 
he said : " It is assuredly not unknown to 
you, venerable brethren, that in our times 
many of the enemies of the Catholic faith 
especially direct their efforts toward 
placing every monstrous opinion on the 
same level with the doctrine of Christ, or 
of confounding it therewith, and so they 
try more and more to propagate that im- 
pious system of the indifference of reli- 
gions. But quite recently, we shudder to 
say it, men have appeared who have 
thrown such reproaches upon our name 
and apostolic dignity, that they do not 
hesitate to slander us, as if we shared in 
their folly and favored the aforesaid most 
wicked system. From the measures, in no 
wise incompatible with the sanctity of the 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS LX. 99 

Catholic religion, which, in certain affairs 
relating to the civil government of the 
Pontifical States, we thought fit in kind- 
ness to adopt, as tending to the public 
advantage and prosperity, and from the 
amnesty graciously bestowed upon some 
of the subjects of the same States at the 
beginning of our pontificate, it appears 
that these men have desired to infer that 
we think so benevolently concerning every 
class of mankind, as to suppose that not 
only the sons of the Church, but that the 
rest also, however alienated from Catholic 
unity they may remain, are alike in the 
way of salvation, and may arrive at ever- 
lasting life. 

" We are at a loss from horror to find 
words to express our detestation of this 
new and atrocious injustice that is done 
us. We do indeed love all mankind 
with the inmost affection of our heart, yet 
not otherwise than in the love of God, 
and of our Lord J esus Christ, who came to 



100 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

seek and to save that which had perished, 
who died for all, who wills all men to 
be saved, and to come to the knowledge 
of the truth ; who therefore sent his dis- 
ciples into the whole world to preach the 
gospel to every creature, proclaiming that 
they who should believe and be baptized 
should be saved, but they who should be- 
lieve not should be condemned ; who 
therefore will be saved let them come to 
the pillar and ground of faith, which is 
the Church ; let them come to the true 
Church of Christ, which in its bishops 
and in the Eoman Pontiff, the chief head 
of all, has the succession of apostolical 
authority, never at any time interrupted ; 
which has never counted aught of greater 
moment than to preach and by all means 
to keep and defend the doctrine proclaim- 
ed by the apostles, by Christ's command; 
which, from the apostles' time downward, 
has increased in the midst of difficulties of 
every kind ; and being illustrious through- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 103 

out the whole world by the splendor of 
miracles, multiplied by the blood of mar- 
tyrs, exalted by the virtues of confessors 
and virgins, strengthened by the most 
wise testimonies of the fathers, hath flour- 
ished and doth flourish in all the regions 
of the earth, and shines refulgent in the 
perfect unity of the faith, of sacraments, 
and of holy discipline." 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Civil Affairs of Eome. — Italy in a Fer- 
ment. — The Fundamental Statute. — The 
Italian War against Austria. — Defeat 
of Charles Albert. — Change of Minis- 
try. — Violence of the Revolutionists 
against the pope. — the church in rus- 
SIA. — Spain. — France. 

The position of Pius IX. as a sovereign 
at last became critical. The vast combi- 
nation against authority and against Cath- 
olic truth was then in full operation 



104 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

throughout Europe. The Catholic Swiss 
formed the Sonderbund, to save, if possi- 
ble, their ancient religious liberty; else- 
where the revolutionary party sought the 
overthrow of existing governments. In 
Italy, and especially at Eome, these men, 
after pledging their words at the time 
of the amnesty, were plotting to destroy 
alike the temporal power of the Holy See, 
and the Church. Mazzini and his accom- 
plices had, while praising the liberal con- 
cessions of Pius IX. to the popular feel- 
ing, stimulated the masses to new and ex- 
orbitant demands. 

Almost simultaneously an insurrection 
at Palermo spread over the kingdom of 
the two Sicilies, and extorted from the 
king a constitution: Austria and Prussia 
were convulsed by similar movements. 
In France the Revolution rose against its 
own work, and weary of the constitu- 
tional monarchy established in 1830, now 
rejected the house of Orleans, as it then 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 105 

rejected the elder branch of Bourbon, and 
proclaimed a republic. 

On the 10th of February Pope Pius 
IX., in an address, said : " Romans ! The 
Pontiff who for two years has received 
from you so many proofs of love and 
fidelity is deaf neither to your desire nor 
your fear. It is our constant thought how 
to develop and perfect, without infringing 
on what we owe the Church, those civil 
institutions which we have created, not 
impelled by force, but yielding only to our 
desire to benefit our people. Before the 
public voice sought it, we had planned a 
reorganization of the militia. To enlarge 
the sphere of action for all whose abil- 
ity and experience might benefit the state 
we have increased the number of lay- 
men in our Council of State. If the con- 
cord of sovereigns to whom Italy owes 
the recent reforms is the guarantee of the 
preservation of these advantages, we have 
cultivated this harmony by preserving and 



106 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



strengthening the most friendly relations 
with them. Nothing in fine that can con- 
tribute to the tranquillity and dignity of 
the state shall be neglected, Romans and 
pontifical subjects, by your father and 
sovereign, who has given you the most 
unmistakable proofs of his solicitude, and 
who stands ready to give you still more, 
if God only vouchsafes to grant to his 
prayers the grace to behold your hearts 
and those of all Italians inspired by the 
true spirit of his wisdom. But on the 
other hand, he is ready to resist, resting 
on the very strength of the institutions 
already granted, all disorderly movements, 
in like manner as he would resist demands 
repugnant to his duty and your happiness." 

On convoking the officers of the civic 
guard, he found that he could not rely on 
that force to maintain order or to suppress 
any rising of the anarchists. Events came 
hurrying on. Prince Corsini, a senator, 
with the members of the municipality of 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



107 



Rome, sought an audience to demand the 
establishment of a representative govern- 
ment. The Pope's reply was clear: " Every- 
body knows that I have been incessant- 
ly engaged in giving the government 
the form claimed by those gentlemen and 
required by the peqple. But everybody 
must understand the difficulty encountered 
by him who unites two supreme dignities. 
What can be effected in one night in 
a secular state cannot be accomplished 
without mature examination at Rome, in 
consequence of the necessity to fix a line 
of separation between the two powers. 
Nevertheless, I hope that in a few days 
the constitution will be ready and that 
I shall be able to proclaim a new form 
of government, calculated to satisfy the 
people, and more particularly the Sen- 
ate and the Council, who know better the 
state of affairs and the situation of the 
country. May the Almighty bless my de- 
sires and labors ! If religion derives any 



108 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS LX. 



advantage therefrom, I will throw myself 
at the feet of the crucified Jesus, to thank 
him for the events accomplished by his 
will, and I will be better satisfied as Chief 
of the Universal Church than as a tem- 
poral prince, if they turn to the greater 
glory of God.'' 

Herein lay the great difficulty. To 
many who did not stop to weigh it the 
separation seemed simple. Many, truly 
Catholic in heart, thought that if the 
Pope ceased to be a prince, he would 
gain as Supreme Pontiff. The result has 
shown that the Pope, unless an indepen- 
dent prince, cannot be free : if any other 
ruler has power in his state or city, the 
government will attempt to control reli- 
gion, prevent the existence of religious or- 
ders, colleges, seminaries, and libraries, or 
assume control, and direct them and their 
property. The missions of the Church 
throughout the world may be at the 
mercy of the fickle will of some inconsider- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 109 

able or inconsiderate power. Such a state 
may by law bind itself to leave the Pope 
and the Church entire freedom, but it can 
repeal and alter its own laws, and alone 
expounds them. 

The movement in the Papal States was 
ostensibly one to obtain for the people 
a greater share in the government. It 
professed to entertain no hostility to reli- 
gion, but the mask fell at once. The cry 
was at once raised against the priests, and 
the expulsion of the Jesuits was demanded, 
and so fierce became the opposition to 
that order, that on the 30th of March 
Pius IX. yielded, and the General of the 
Society of Jesus prepared to withdraw 
from the city which still acknowledged 
the Pope as prince. The point was clear 
and patent ; the people of the Papal States 
claimed not only self-government, but the 
right to govern the Church throughout 
the world, by assuming to decide what 
religious, if any, it should have, and what 



110 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



ecclesiastical advisers the Head of the 
Church should have near his person. 

The Fundamental Statute, issued by- 
Pope Pius IX., gave his States a constitu- 
tion. By this the College of Cardinals re- 
mained the Senate ; a high council and 
council of deputies were established, to 
be convoked, prorogued, or dissolved by 
the sovereign Pontiff. Laws passed by 
them were to be considered by him in a 
secret consistory of the cardinals. The 
Parliament was to introduce no law on 
ecclesiastical or mixed matters, or con- 
trary to the canons and discipline of the 
Church, or in contravention of the Funda- 
mental Statute. In the annual budget 
six hundred thousand scudi were reserved 
annually for the support of the Holy See, 
the Sacred College, the Congregations, the 
Propaganda, and the Diplomatic Corps. 
All relating to intercourse with foreign 
powers was reserved to the Pope. 

Under this Fundamental Statute the 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. Ill 

Parliament met on the 5th of June, Car- 
dinal Altieri reading the message of his 
Holiness. The two Chambers contained 
some sincere patriots devoted to their 
country, their sovereign, and their re- 
ligion ; but it was evident that they were 
powerless in the hands of the more active 
partisans of the secret societies who sought 
the overthrow of all existing institutions. 

The moment was critical. An insurrec- 
tion at Vienna had paralyzed the Austrian 
Government in its very capital. Lombar- 
dy and Venice were in open revolt, and 
Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, was 
moving with an army to their support. 
The Roman States and the Duchies were 
full of . enthusiasm for the liberation of 
Italy from the Austrian power. 

Pius IX. wished to see the peninsula 
free, but he was opposed to war and 
sought to form a national league of the 
different Italian States, which by nego- 
tiation should effect the desired result. 



112 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



Naples, Tuscany, and some other States, 
were ready to join him ; but Sardinia, full 
of projects for securing in its own hands 
the control of the whole peninsula, re- 
fused to send delegates to Rome. The 
war began. On the 24th of March, the 
Pope, checking the outbursts of the popu- 
lace, sent an army under General Du- 
rando to protect his frontiers. His in- 
structions were precise : " Know that you 
are marching solely to protect the fron- 
tiers of our States. Beware of crossing 
them, for by so doing, you will transgress 
my orders and place the pontifical troops 
in the attitude of aggressors, an attitude 
which can in no event be proper." Gen- 
eral Durando, on reaching the frontier, 
pledged the Pope to a crusade of extermi- 
nation against the Austrians, as enemies 
of the Cross of Christ; but the Pope 
promptly disavowed his course. 

The war was brief and disastrous. 
Durando repulsed the Austrians, who at- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 113 

tacked him at Vicenza ; but Charles Albert 
was totally defeated before Milan by the 
Austrian s, who exhibited unwonted en- 
ergy and signal military skill. Then the 
pontifical army capitulated at Vicenza. 
The power of Austria seemed stronger 
than ever. This produced the greatest 
ferment at Rome. The revolutionary 
party became wildly violent. The city 
was completely in their hands. The car- 
dinals were actually prisoners and the 
power of the Pope was defied. A savage 
mob called for the massacre of all priests, 
and was with difficulty restrained by Ma- 
miani and other leaders who did not wish 
to shock the whole of Europe, and per- 
haps cause a foreign intervention which 
would have defeated all their plans. 

The Pope in vain endeavored to coun- 
sel moderation. Italy was in a flame of 
excitement, and the revolution sought to 
destroy the influence of the Pope, as Head 
of the Church, by representing him in 



114 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX 

Rome as the friend of Austria, and in Ger- 
many as the bitter opponent of everything 
German. At Rome, affairs were hourly 
more critical. The leaders of the popu- 
lace demanded a change of ministry, the, 
dismissal of Cardinal Antonelli, and the 
reorganization of the heads of the govern- 
ment by the appointment of laymen only. 
They insisted on the expulsion of the 
Austrian Ambassador, and an immediate 
declaration of war. The ministry had 
really resigned, but resumed their port- 
folios, to stand or fall with Cardinal An- 
tonelli. 

Pius IX. was now really a prisoner in 
his palace, which was surrounded by sol- 
diers under the command of revolutionists. 
They were ordered to prevent the flight 
of the Pope. But Pius IX. did not yet 
despair of restoring peace to his States and 
calming the excited public feelings. He 
proposed Cardinal Altieri as prime minis- 
ter, but Mamiani finally refusing to hold 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



115 



a portfolio under him, the difficult and 
dangerous position was assigned to Cardi- 
nal Ciacehi. On the 4th of May, the new 
ministry, with Count Mamiani as minister 
of the interior ; Count Marchetti, minister 
of secular foreign affairs ; Con suitor Pascal 
de Rossi, minister of justice ; Lunate, min- 
ister of finance ; Prince Pamphili, of war, 
and the Duke of Rignano, minister of 
commerce, entered on its duties. 

It was at once evident that the popular 
leaders thus forced on the Pope were 
acting in bad faith. With pretended 
liberality they proposed as member of the 
Council the Jesuit Father Vico, whom they 
had actually banished from Rome, where 
his wonderful astronomical researches had 
made him famous. 

But the great effort of the ministry was 
to force the Pope to declare war on Aus- 
tria. To this Pius IX. would not yield. 
He declared explicitly, " that he was aware 
that they sought to use him as an instru- 



116 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

nient to effect tlie designs of the agitators 
of Italy, who would no sooner attain their 
end than they would set him aside; that 
the project of depriving the sovereign 
Pontiff of his temporal domain had long 
been entertained ; if they dared to wrest 
it from him, he would make his formal 
and solemn protest to the world/' 

Pius IX. had carried out the sugges- 
tions of the famous memorandum; and 
conclusively proved that the points urged 
in it were mischievous in their tendencies, 
not only to the peace of Rome, but of Eu- 
rope. He could in all justice call upon 
the powers to remedy evils which they 
themselves had caused. 

" He insisted that the right of declaring 
war is a special prerogative of sovereignty, 
and that he intended to yield it to none, 
and that consequently the address pre- 
sented to him amounted really to a de- 
mand for his abdication, to which he 
would never consent." 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 117 

The Parliament opened with the* lay 
ministers hostile, and the House of Depu- 
ties full of revolutionists, the faithful 
people having generally abstained from 
voting, here as elsewhere the apathy of 
good citizens leaving the power for evil 
in the hands of the desperate and un- 
principled. The address of Pius IX. 
inculcated the necessity of his keep- 
ing aloof from the struggle then going 
on. 

But while Mamiani threw himself 
boldly into direct opposition with his 
sovereign, demanding his abdication and 
war with Austria, the inexorable logic of 
events was deciding the question. 

The Austrians met the Italians with 
military skill and courage equal to their 
own. They defeated the Italians at Vi- 
cenza, and occupied Ferrara. On this the 
revolutionists who had derided all ecclesi- 
astical intervention demanded the Pope's 
excommunication of the Austrians. The 



118 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

ministry resigned and a reign of terror 
be^an in Rome. 

The crushing defeat of Charles Albert, 
at Custozza, left the Italian revolutionists 
hopeless. With Sardinia humbled to the 
dust, and the gallant king self-exiled, all 
thought of Rome's declaring war vanished. 
A new ministry, under Count Fabri, as 
representing the lay element, was formed. 
The Austrians, fully conceiving the posi- 
tion of the Pope in the recent events, at 
his request withdrew their forces from his 
territory. A word from the sovereign 
Pontiff effected what Italian arms had 
failed to accomplish. 

The Parliament was prorogued to No- 
vember, and the revolutionists prepared 
new schemes. 

Amid all this turbulence which con- 
vulsed Rome, the Pope directed the affairs 
of the Church as though naught but the 
spiritual concerns absorbed his attention. 
In his remarkable pontificate we shall 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 119 

meet many occasions where amid peril or 
exile Pius IX. was planning or carrying 
out great designs for the good of the 
Church. 

The state of the Church in Russia had 
been one of heroic suffering on the part 
of the faithf ul, and of terrible cruelties on 
the part of the imperial authorities. 

Pius IX., in order to restore peace to the 
afflicted Church in Russia, had appointed 
Cardinal Lambruschini and the prelate 
John Carboli Bussi to meet Counts Blou- 
doff and Boutenieff, the envoys of the Czar, 
and arrange a treaty which would permit 
the sovereign Pontiff to bring the Catholic 
religion in the vast empire to a better 
condition, and provide more easily for the 
salvation of souls. 

The results were most consoling. In 
the secret consistory of July 3, 1848, 
Pius IX. was able to announce to the 
cardinals that now it would be possible 
to appoint bishops of the Latin rite to 



120 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

sees which had long been vacant, both in 
Russia and in Poland. A neAV Episcopal 
see was to be erected at Kherson, with 
its chapter of canons and diocesan semi- 
naiy, and a suffragan at Saratow. The 
Pope zealously endeavored to secure by the 
treaty the perfect freedom of the Catho- 
lic bishops in the administration of their 
dioceses. Provision was also made for 
the Catholics of the Armenian, Ruthenian, 
and other rites, who might be in the dio- 
ceses of bishops of the Latin rite, and 
with no bishop of their own. He did not 
indeed succeed in securing for the Catholics 
of Russia the desired freedom of commu- 
nication with the Holy See which he 
desired, but still immense good was ac- 
complished; property was restored to 
the Church, an intrusive lay officer no 
longer acted as a spy on meetings of the 
bishops, marriages were no longer sub- 
jected to the State Church. These con- 
cessions were made, however, only for the 



LIFE OF POPE PUTS IX. 121 



Catholics of the Latin rite. The Ruthe- 
nians were still exposed to the penal 
laws. The sovereign Pontiff exhorted 
these persecuted Catholics to remain faith- 
ful and immovable in the unity of the 
Catholic Church, or to return to it 
promptly if they had fallen away in the 
hour of trial. The nominations of the 
bishops were to be made after consulta- 
tion between the Czar and the Pope. 

On the 27th of August, Pius IX. vis- 
ited the church of Saint Pantaleon to oifer 
the holy sacrifice on the bi-centennial of 
the birth of St. Joseph Calasanctius. He 
there published a decree for the beatifi- 
cation of the venerable Peter Claver, a 
Jesuit priest, who devoted his whole life 
to the conversion and consolation of negro 
slaves in South America. 

The court of Rome, about the same 
time, received the first diplomatic repre- 
sentative from the United States, who, 
on presenting his credentials, expressed 



122 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

the lively satisfaction felt in the United 
States at the noble efforts of Pius IX. to 
ameliorate the condition of his people. 
Pius IX. was also consoled to receive an 
envoy from the Queen of Spain, who 
had at last succeeded in restoring com- 
munication with the Holy See, and was 
endeavoring to revive religion in that once 
devotedly Catholic country. 

In the storm of revolution which swept 
over Europe and agitated Italy to its 
depths, the Church was exposed to re- 
peated attacks. In France, the noble 
archbishop of Paris, Mgr. Affre, died at 
the barricades while endeavoring to arrest 
the eff nsion of blood ; and his heroic 
death gave the Church new honor even in 
the eyes of its opponents. In Germany, 
the government, anxious to see a national 
schism in the Catholic body, encouraged 
Kongo's attempt to found an independent 
German Catholic Church. In Switzerland, 
the government showed constant jealousy. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



123 



Amid all the perils of his position, Pius 
IX. watched with the eye of a vigilant 
father over all these exposed portions of 
his flock, consoling and encouraging the 
persecuted amid their struggles by words 
of apostolic fervor. On the 11th of Sep- 
tember, he addressed the Sacred College 
on the virtues and. merits of the illustrious 
archbishop of Paris, and urged on all the 
duty of praying that God would still the 
terrible tempest sweeping over the world 
and threatening, were it possible, to de- 
stroy the Church, and really causing the 
destruction of countless souls. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Ministry of Count Hossi. — A United 
Italy. — Assassination of Rossi. — The 

Quieinal BESIEGED. —Pius IX. DESERTED 
BY ALL BUT THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS. — HlS 

Escape to Gaeta. — His Eeception by the 
King of Naples. 

The ministry of Mamiani, forced on the 



124 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



Pope, had sought the good neither of the 
peoj3le nor of the Sovereign. It had been 
ruinously extravagant and productive of 
naught but evils. In all departments of 
the public service anarchy was fast re- 
placing the former system and order. In 
this crisis Pius IX. called to the ministry a 
man of experience who had, as ambassador 
from France, been able to understand thor- 
oughly the position of affairs. On the 
16th of September, 1848, Count Pelle- 
grino Rossi became Prime Minister, acting 
also as Minister of the Interior and of 
Finance. Cardinal Soglia was Secretary of 
State, but most of the other members were 
laymen. 

It was a ministry that might have 
effected great good, but as it sought to 
render the people happy and prosperous 
under the rule of the Sovereign Pontiffs, 
it directly opposed the schemes* of the 
revolutionists, and they resolved to over- 
throw it even by assassination. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



125 



Rossi, who possessed great executive 
ability, introduced economy and reform in 
place of Mamiani's disorder and extrava- 
gance; and while thus establishing a good 
government at home, he negotiated with 
the Kings of Naples and Sardinia and the 
Grand Duke of Tuscany a defensive con- 
federation of the Italian States. This was 
the idea of Pius IX., under which each 
State retained its complete independence, 
but all were united to repel foreign ag- 
gression or intestine revolt. Sardinia met 
this proposal with duplicity. She could 
not altogether reject it, but already aimed 
through the revolution to acquire the 
sway of the whole peninsula. 

The league would have defeated the 
revolution and liberated Italy. The secret 
societies in Rome, Turin, and Florence 
resolved that Rossi should be removed. 
Men were appointed to assassinate him, 
and on the 14th of November these by 
lot selected one of the number, Sante 



126 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

Constantini, to strike the blow, He prac- 
ticed on a dead body. The next day 
Count Rossi was warned, and Pius IX. 
urged him to take precautions for his 
safety. His associate ministers declined 
to allow the palace where the chambers 
met to be guarded by the carbineers. He 
saw that his doom was sealed, and doubt- 
less felt that with so many enemies around 
pledged to his death, escape was impossi- 
ble. When he heard that he. was to be 
struck clown as he entered the palace 
where the chambers sat, he replied, "I 
defend the cause of the Pope, and the 
cause of the Pope is the cause of God; 
I must and will go." 

When his carriage drove into the court 
he saw that only members of the civic 
guard were on duty. He stepped from 
his carriage amid cries of : " Down with 
Eossi ! death to Rossi ! kill him!" A crow r d 
at once gathered around and forced him 
aside from Eighetto, one of the ministry 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



127 



who accompanied him. As he reached 
the building he was struck with a cane ; 
he turned, and at that instant Constan- 
tini drove a dagger into his throat, 
severing the carotid artery. He reeled 
against the wall, made a few steps, and 
fell. " His murderer was not arrested," 
wrote the French minister to his govern- 
ment, "nor was any attempt made to 
seize him. Some gendarmes and civic 
guards were on the spot, but they did not 
interfere. The populace remained mute 
and cold. It was with difficulty that the 
minister's attendant could find any one to 
help him convey his master's body to an 
adjacent room. The Assembly, on whose 
very threshold the murder was committed, 
continued to read its minutes without in- 
terruption, and during the whole session 
no allusion was made to the event." 

" Count Rossi died a martyr," said the 
great Pope, whom in the interests of the 
Roman people he sought to serve. " God 



128 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



will receive his soul in peace," and on the 
monument which he erected to his mem- 
ory in the church of San Lorenzo were in- 
scribed the words, "I undertook to pro- 
tect the holiest of causes. God will have 
pity." 

Such are secret societies. A true pa- 
triot, whose only aims were his country's, 
God's, and truth's, is marked out for death 
by a few nameless leaders, and men thought 
it a duty to execute their fearful orders. 
How can sensible men enter societies 
and bind themselves to violate the laws 
of God and man, to obey they know not 
whom, they know not why ? 

The murderer of Count Rossi was the 
hero of the mob, who the next day be- 
sieged the Quirinal. The army and civic 
guard sided with the rioters, making no 
effort to check them. For a time the 
Swiss Guard held the mere mob at bay, 
but says d'Harcourt, the French minister, 
who with the rest of the diplomatic corps 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 129 

stood beside the deserted Pontiff, " The 
mob were beginning to disperse, when, to 
our surprise, we beheld an unexpected 
spectacle. The civic guard, the gendarm- 
erie, the line, and the Eoman legion, to 
the number of some thousands in uniform, 
with music and drums, came and drew up 
in order of battle on the piazza of the 
Quirinal, and joined by such of the mob 
as remained, opened tire on the windows 
of the Quirinal palace. Some of the balls 
penetrated the apartments, and one killed 
a prelate (Mgr. Palm a) who was in his 
chamber. As the Swiss continued to dis- 
play a bold attitude, and it was thought 
that a determined resistance would be 
offered, cannon were brought to batter 
down the doors of the Pope's palace." 

The Pope evinced the greatest coolness 
and firmness, but as it was impossible to 
hold out, negotiations were entered into. 
A committee entered to present to Car- 
dinal Soglia a programme of their de- 



130 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

mands. The Pope's only reply was that 
he would consider it. Then a deputation 
of officers of carbineers was sent in. Pius 
IX. received them in person, surrounded 
by the ambassadors of France, Spain, Ba- 
varia, Portugal, and Russia. The Pope, 
to their demand, replied that they in fact 
asked him to abdicate, and that he had 
no power to do. Roused at the insult 
thus offered to the sovereign Pontiff by 
poltroon officers of his own army over- 
awed by a mob and its hidden leaders, 
Martinez de la Rosa exclaimed, " Go, gen- 
tlemen ; tell the leaders of this revolt that 
if they persist in their odious project they 
must march over my dead body to reach 
the sacred person of the sovereign Pon- 
tiff. But tell them that the vengeance of 
Spain will be terrible." 

The Pope was now a prisoner in the 
palace. A provisional government was 
formed with Sterbini at the head, and 
Charles, prince of Canino, who had led 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



131 



the students of the Sapienza in the attack 
on the palace. They sought to force a 
new ministry on the Pope, but he said : 
" I am here a prisoner. They have wished 
to deprive me of my guard and put me 
in the hands of others. My course at this 
moment, when I am deprived of all sup- 
port and all material po ver, can have but 
one object, to avoid, at any cost, the use- 
less shedding of a single drop of fraternal 
blood in my behalf. To this fear I yield, 
but at the same time, I wish you and all 
Europe to know that I do not even nom- 
inally take any part in the government, 
and that I remain absolutely a stranger to 
its acts. I have forbidden any abuse of 
my name, I have even forbidden the use 
of the ordinary formulas." 

Sterbini and Bonaparte attempted to 
disband the Swiss Guard: they yielded 
only at the command of Pins IX. 

The sovereign Pontiff saw himself now 
alike unable to govern the Church or his 



132 LIFE OF POPE PIUS LX. 

States while remaining in Rome. A secret 
flight was the only course open to him. 

" One consideration more than another," 
says Maguire,* " was powerful with the 
Pope — that the direction of those affairs 
which related to the Church was not only 
interfered with, but was rendered wholly 
impossible. At first, he was doubtful as 
to the course which he should take, or the 
resolution to which he should come ; and 
in this state of suspense he remained for 
two or three days, when he received a 
letter from France, from the bishop of 
Valence. In this letter the bishop ac- 
quainted his Holiness that a little silver 
case having come into his possession, which 
had served Pius VII., of blessed memory, 
to keep therein a consecrated particle, in 
order that he might have the most Holy 
Sacrament as a solace during the sad exile 
to which tyranny and infidelity had con- 



* "Kome and its Ruler," p. 89. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 133 

demned him, lie was happy to have it 
conveyed to Pope Pius IX. as a memorial 
of one of his holy predecessors, and as an 
object perhaps not useless during the 
events that were taking place in those 
days. On the receipt of this precious 
memorial, the Pope no longer delayed, or 
hesitated as to the course which he should 
take; and he accordingly resolved upon 
abandoning Rome. At first, he deliber- 
ated upon what place to select for his 
stay, but as the Spanish court had offered 
him their hospitality, and as the ambas- 
sador, Signor Martinez de la Rosa, assured 
him of the immediate arrival of a steamer 
belonging to that nation in the harbor of 
Civita Vecchia, the Pope thought that this 
would be an opportune means whereby to 
effect his escape ; but the Spanish steamer 
being retarded from day to day, and the 
state of affairs in Rome becoming more 
and more alarming, the Pope intimated to 
the Spanish ambassador that he purposed 



134 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

setting out at once, and that orders might 
be given to the captain of the steamer, 
when he should arrive at Civ it a Vecchia, 
to sail to the port of Gaeta, whither he 
had determined to proceed. The intended 
flight had been already communicated to 
upward of fifty persons, ecclesiastics and 
seculars, and everything was in readiness 
for its accomplishment. It took place in 
the following manner. The Duke d'Har- 
court, minister of France, on the evening 
of the 24th, drove up, with couriers and 
torches, to the usual entrance. Leaving 
his carriage at the foot of the stairs by 
which all who seek an audience with the 
Holy Father ascend, he was introduced 
as though for a solemn reception. Pro- 
ceeding at once to the apartments of the 
Pope, he aided him to exchange his white 
soutane for the black cassock of an ordi- 
nary priest, gave him a pair of large spec- 
tacles and a cloak. When his Holiness 
was ready, the duke began to read in a 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 135 



loud voice, as if submitting some impor- 
tant document to the immediate decision 
of the Pope, and thus deceived the guards 
without. Meanwhile Pius IX., guided 
by his attendant, the Cavalier Fili]> 
pani, passed through a series of apart- 
ments, guided only by a taper, which was 
suddenly extinguished by a draft, com- 
pelling Filippani to return, to the great 
dismay of the duke. But Providence 
guided them. The revolutionists watched 
in front only; they reached the cortile 
of the Quirinal by the Swiss door unper- 
ceived, but were nearly betrayed, as they 
entered the carriage waiting there, by a 
good domestic, who recognizing the Pope 
fell on his knees, but rose at a warning 
gesture, unperceived by the civic guard 
who were exchanging greetings with 
Filippani. 

The carriage, with its precious but un- 
suspected passenger, drove rapidly amid 
the soldiers in the Piazza and through one 



136 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

street after another, crossing the Corso and 
passing beneath the shadow of the Coli- 
seum, till it reached the monastery of St. 
Marcellino e Pietro, where Count Spaur, 
the Bavarian minister, awaited him. 
Thence the illustrious fugitive drove ra- 
pidly to the Albano gate, to meet the 
post-chaise which had been prepared for 
his journey to Gaeta. 

Here the faithful Filippani left Pius IX., 
placing in his hands a package of secret 
papers, the seals, a breviary, and a few 
clothes, the whole traveling outfit of the 

7 O 

sovereign Pontiff. He closed the door 
with a good-bye to the supposed Abate, 
Count Spaur mounted the box, and the 
fresh horses started for the St. John gate. 
Hailed there by the sentry, " Who goes 
there l v the reply, "The Ambassador of 
Bavaria and Doctor Aletz," sufficed to ob- 
tain the word to pass. The Countess 
Spaur awaited them in another convey- 
ance, in the valley of Ariccia. As the 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 137 

Po23e drove up, five carbineers, on patrol, 
approached. " Is that you, doctor," said 
the Countess, " you have kept us waiting." 
Unsuspectingly the carbineers aided his 
Holiness to enter the Countess' carriage. 
He sat behind with the Countess, her son 
Maximilian, and his tutor, Liebl, in front. 
The Count again occupied the box with 
the driver. 

The carriage drove rapidly on. The 
Pope, in silent prayer, pressing to his 
heart the pyx of Pius VII., containing 
the Blessed Sacrament ; the rest full of 
awe at their proximity to the Father of 
the Faithful, and full of anxiety for the 
result. As though penetrating their secret 
thought, the Pope first broke silence, say- 
ing, u Be calm, God is with us. I carry 
the Blessed Sacrament on my person." He 
continued in silent prayer or reciting the 
breviary with Father Liebl. 

At Forli, while changing horses, one of 
the postillions remarked, " How much that 



138 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

doctor looks like a picture of the Pope I 
have at home," but turned at once to talk 
of something else, and all breathed more 
freely. 

On leaving Terracina he asked the 
Countess to tell him the moment they 
reached the Neapolitan frontier. All 
again was silent, till at last she cried, 
" Holy Father, we are there ! " Then he 
burst into tears and thanked God for his 
protection, reciting the Te Deum in thanks- 
giving. 

It was just before daybreak. Relieved 
from a terrible anxiety, they drove on, 
and at half-past nine reached the mole of 
Gaeta, where Cardinal Antonelli and the 
first secretary of the Spanish legation 
awaited them. Count Spaur at once left 
them for Naples, bearing a letter from the 
Pope to the King of Naples, written at 
the Villa Cicerone, announcing that he 
had come to solicit shelter at his hands, 
but that he did not wish by his presence 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



139 



to cause any complications during the stay 
he was compelled to make while awaiting 
a vessel to bear him to Spain. 

The Duke d'Harcourt, after keeping up 
his reading as long as he deemed neces- 
sary to enable the Pope to pass beyond 
the limits of the city, came out of the 
apartments of his Holiness, and giving the 
sentinels to understand that the Pope had 
retired, drove off, and at once prepared 
to follow him to Gaeta. 

At that city the Pope proceeded to the 
bishop's palace, but that prelate was ab- 
sent, and the household were too suspi- 
cious of the strangers to open the apart- 
ments to them. He returned to Gaeta, 
and the party were summoned before the 
commandant of the fortress, to which Car- 
dinal Antonelli at once repaired, but failed 
to disarm his suspicions as to the mys- 
terious party at the inn. 

Count Spaur had meanwhile driven in 
all haste to Naples, where he at once 



140 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

proceeded to the Pope's Nuncio. He 
could scarcely induce that prelate to be- 
lieve his words and present him to the 
king. They drove to the palace, and 
reaching it at midnight, delivered to 
Ferdinand the letter of Pius IX. He 
read it with wonder, and heard in tears 
the account of his escape. Then he ran to 
the apartments of the queen and his chil- 
dren, crying, " Arise ! the Pope is at 
Gaeta; we must start to-night to throw 
ourselves at his feet, and offer him our re- 
spectful homage." 

Two steamers, the Tancred and the 
Robert, were at once got ready ; the king 
ordered a number of articles for the Pope's 
immediate use, clothing, furniture, plate, 
and at six o'clock he embarked on the 
Tancred with the queen and his whole 
family, the Bavarian minister, and a nu- 
merous suite. 

The steamers appeared off Gaeta almost 
simultaneously with a French frigate bear- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



143 



ing the Duke d'Harcourt. In a short time 
all met at the governor's palace, and the 
mystery was solved. 

Ferdinand II., could not restrain his 
tears on beholding the Head of the Church 
appear, bereft of all the attributes of his 
exalted dignity, almost alone, leaning on a 
cane, but gentle, calm, as benignant under 
his black hat as under the triple crown. 
The queen knelt on the staircase with her 
children, the whole court imitated her ex- 
ample, nor did they rise till they received 
the blessing of the illustrious guest whom 
heaven had sent. 

The king at once used every argument 
to induce the Pope to accept his hospital- 
ity and remain at Gaeta, a safe and tran- 
quil spot, near the Roman frontier, amid 
a faithful people and protected by a for- 
midable fortress. He gave him his own 
palace, and took up his residence in a 
house at a short distance, and showed 
every courtesy and care toward the cardi- 



144 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

nals and other personages, who gradually 
formed a little court around the Pope. 

The Spanish minister had on the part 
of the queen offered Pius IX. a home in 
her kingdom ; but the devotion of Fer- 
dinand IT. prevailed, and with the approval 
of all the powers, Gaeta became, for a time, 
the residence of the august exile. 

Not far from Gaeta there is a celebrated 
sanctuary of the Holy Trinity ; the Sover- 
eign Pontiff expressing a wish to offer his 
devotions there, set out with the king and 
queen, the princes, cardinals, and the dip- 
lomatic corps. On the way the Pope 
alighted, and from a rising ground be- 
stowed his benediction on the king and 
the troops who surrounded him. At the 
grotto of the sanctuary the superior of the 
religious community intrusted with its 
care celebrated the holy sacrifice in the 
presence of the supreme Pontiff. At the 
close of the mass Pius IX. approached the 
altar, and while all were expecting to be- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 145 

hold him turn and bless them, Pius IX. 
knelt and pronounced aloud this fervent 
prayer, which moved all to tears: 

"Eternal God, my august Father and 
Lord, behold at thy feet thy unworthy 
vicar, who entreats thee with his whole 
heart to pour out upon him from thy 
eternal throne thy divine benediction. 
O my God, direct his steps, sanctify his 
intentions, guide his mind, govern his ac- 
tions. May he be here, where thou hast led 
him in thy admirable Providence, or in 
any other portion of thy fold to which he 
may go, a worthy instrument of thy glory, 
and that of thy Church, which, alas ! is 
assailed by thy enemies. If, to appease 
thy wrath so justly enkindled by the 
many indignities that are offered to thee, 
in word, in action, and by the abuse of 
the press, his own life may be an' agree- 
able holocaust to thy Divine Heart, he con- 
secrates it to thee from this moment. 
Thou hast given it to him, to thee only 



146 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

belongs the right of taking it away when 
it may please thee ; but, O rny Grod, let 
thy glory triumph, let thy Church be vic- 
torious. Preserve the good, support the 
feeble, and may the arm of thy omnipo- 
tence arouse all who are slumbering in 
darkness, and in the shadow of death. 
Bless, O Lord, the ruler who is here pros- 
trate before thee ; bless his consort and his 
family ; bless all his subjects, and his 
faithful and honored soldiery ; bless the 
cardinals, the bishops, and all the clergy, 
that they may accomplish in the peaceful 
ways of thy law, the sanctification of the 
people. Then may we hope, not only to 
be delivered during our mortal pilgrim- 
age from the snares of the impious and 
the machinations of wicked men, but to 
reach that place which affords eternal 
safety: ut hie et in ceternum, te auxiUante, 
salvi et liberi esse mereamur? 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 147 



CHAPTER VI. 

Pius IX. at Gaeta. — His Protest. — Eome in 

THE HANDS OF THE REVOLUTION.— INTERVEN- 
TION of the Catholic Powers. — General 
Oudinot Recovers Rome. — Napoleon's 
Tortuous Policy. — Pius IX. Invited to 
America. — Encyclical on the Immacu- 
late Conception.— His Work at Gaeta. 

From Gaeta Pius IX. addressed to his 
subjects and to the Catholic world this 
protest : 

" Pius IX. to the Roman people : 

" The outrage committed within the 
last days against our person, and the 
openly-avowed intention of continuing 
these acts of violence (which the Al- 
mighty, inspiring men's minds with senti- 
ments of union and moderation, has pre- 
vented), have compelled us to separate 
ourselves temporarily from our subjects 
and children, whom we love and ever 
shall love. The reasons which have in- 



148 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



duced us to take this important step — 
heaven knows how painful it is to our 
hearts — have arisen from the necessity of 
our enjoying free liberty in the exercise 
of the sacred duties of the Holy See, as, 
under the circumstances by which we were 
then affected, the Catholic world might 
reasonably doubt of the freedom of that 
exercise. The acts of violence of which 
we complain can alone be attributed to 
the machinations which have been used, 
and the measures that have been taken 
by a class of men degraded in the face of 
Europe and the world. This is the more 
evident, as the wrath of the Almighty has 
already fallen on their souls, and as it will 
call down on them, sooner or later, the 
punishment which is prescribed for them 
by his Church. 

" We recognize humbly, in the ingrati- 
tude of these misguided children, the 
anger of the Almighty, who permits their 
misfortunes as an atonement for the sins 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 149 

of ourselves and those of our people. 
But still we cannot, without betraying 
the sacred duties imposed on us, refrain 
from protesting formally against their 
acts, as we did do verbally on the 16th 
of November, of painful memory, in pres- 
ence of the whole Diplomatic Corps, who 
on that occasion honorably encircled us, 
and brought comfort and consolation to 
our souls, in recognizing that a violent 
and unprecedented sacrilege had been 
committed. That protest we did intend, 
as we now do, openly and publicly to re- 
peat, inasmuch as we yielded only to vio- 
lence, and because we were and are de- 
sirous it should be made known that all 
proceedings emanating from such acts of 
violence were and are devoid of all ef- 
ficacy and legality. This protest is as a 
necessary consequence of the malicious 
labor of these wicked men, and we pub- 
lish it from the suggestion of our con- 
science, stimulated as it has been by the 



150 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



circumstances in which we were placed, 
and the impediments offered to the exer- 
cises of our sacred duties. Nevertheless, 
we confide upon the Most High that the 
continuance of these evils may be abridg- 
ed, and we humbly supplicate the God of 
heaven to avert his wrath, in the language 
of the prophet — ''Memento, Domine, David, 
et omnis mansuetudinis ejus f ' In order 
that the city of Eome and our States 
be not deprived of a legal executive, we 
have nominated a governing commission, 
composed of the following persons: 'The 
Cardinal Castracane, President, Monsig- 
nor Roberto Roberti, Prince Roviano, 
Prince Barberini, Marquis Bevilacqua di 
Bologna, Lieutenant-Greneral Zucchi. 7 

"In confiding to the said governing 
commission the temporary direction of 
public affairs, we recommend to our sub- 
jects and children, without exception, 
the conservation of tranquillity and good 
order. Finally, we desire and commend 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 151 

that daily and earnest prayers shall be 
offered for the safety of our person and 
that the peace of the world may be pre- 
served, especially that of our State of 
Koine, where aDd with whose children, 
our heart shall be wherever we in person 
may dwell within the fold of Christ. 
And in fulfillment of our duty as su- 
preme Pontiff, we thus humbly and de- 
voutly invoke the Great Mother of Mercy, 
and the holy apostles, Peter and Paul, 
for their intercession that the city and 
State of Rome may be saved from the 
wrath of the Omnipotent God. 

"Pius Papa IX. 
" Gaeta, November 28." 

In Rome the escape of the Pope from 
their hands disconcerted entirely the plans 
of the revolutionists. Pius IX. at Gaeta, 
was recognized by all the great powers 
as still the sovereign of Rome, the ruler 
of the patrimony of St. Peter. The min- 



152 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

isters of France, Spain, and Bavaria had 
taken part in his departure from Rome. 
It was unexampled that a sovereign in 
exile should be so regarded universally, 
yet the Pope was recognized not by 
Catholic powers only, but by England, 
Prussia, and Russia. This made it impos- 
sible for the revolutionists to obtain re- 
cognition; conscious of this they sent a 
deputation to Gaeta to induce the Pope 
to return to Rome, but he declined to re- 
ceive them. " He could not treat," said 
Cardinal Antonelli, in his reply, " with a 
defunct ministry and a Parliament which 
he had dissolved." Then they threw off 
the mask, and on the 12th of December, 
established a Junta, overthrowing the 
Parliament, but on the 29th these called a 
National Assembly of the Roman States. 

The enemies of the Church at Rome 
and elsewhere exulted at the overthrow 
of the Papacy ; but never did men delude 
themselves more grossly with their own 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



153 



desires. A sovereign Pontiff reigning in 
peace at Rome, as many of his predeces- 
sors had done, is scarcely known in per- 
son to the millions of Catholics scattered 
throughout the world. He is the Pope, 
revered and honored, but scarcely known 
except in name. Bishops and occasionally 
priests would go from time to time to 
Rome, and on their return a temporary 
interest be excited in the reigning sovereign 
Pontiff. During the last century the re- 
verse has been the case. The sufferings of 
Pius VI, Pius VII., and of Pius IX., en- 
deared them personally to all Catholic 
hearts. Every Catholic child knows that 
Pius IX. is the reigning Pope t and, from 
the constant reproductions of his portrait, 
is familiar with that benign and saintly 
face. From the time of his exile to Graeta, 
Pius IX. has been known and loved by 
his flock as no Pope had ever been before. 

On the 1st of January, the Pope again 
addressed the people of his States, warning 



154 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

them against the pretended National As- 
sembly convoked by the wretches then in 
power at Rome. Regardless of his pro- 
tests the leaders of the revolution estab- 
lished a Supreme Provisional Junta of 
State ; but against this Pi as IX. protested 
in a document issued January 17, 1849. 

On the 8th of February, the Assembly 
under the guidance of Mazzini, who had 
arrived in Rome, declared the Pope, in fact 
and of right, deprived of the temporal 
government of the Roman States ; but at 
the same time declared that he should have 
every guarantee of independence necessary 
for the exercise of his spiritual powers. 

The world, however, considered that if 
a Roman mob had the power to authorize 
the Pope to exercise his spiritual functions, 
it must have the power to forbid ; and no 
sensible person could concede that they had 
either. 

France made the first move. The faith- 
ful revived the Peter's Pence, which in the 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



155 



ages of faith had been such a resource to 
the sovereign Pontiffs. The new-formed 
Republic, on the 27th of November, dis- 
patched a fervent Catholic, M. de Cor- 
celles, with a brigade of 3,500 men to in- 
tervene in the name of the French Republic, 
and restore to his Holiness his personal 
liberty, if he was deprived of it. This 
did not satisfy the heart of France. In 
the session of the 30th, Count Montalem- 
bert nobly said : " The person of the Pope 
is infinitely dear to us and infinitely sacred; 
but there is something dearer and more 
sacred in our eyes, it is his authority." 

General Cavaignac addressed the Pope, 
offering him the hospitality of France. 
Prince Napoleon, aiming at his uncle's 
throne, and reading more clearly the 
Catholic heart of the people, wrote to the 
Nuncio in France, to disclaim all knowl- 
edge or approval of the conduct of the 
Prince of Canino, his cousin, and deploring 
that that member of the Bonaparte family 



156 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

had not seen that the maintenance of the 
temporal sovereignty of the venerable 
Head of the Church was intimately con- 
nected with the luster of Catholicity as 
well as with the liberty and independence 
of Italy. Napoleon rose to the throne of 
France by giving the support of his 
country to the Pope ; the scepter slipped 
from his grasp when he withdrew it. 

Spain first declared for an armed inter- 
vention. In a diplomatic note of Decem- 
ber 21, 1848, she declared, "The question 
is no longer whether the Pope's liberty 
shall be protected, but whether his au- 
thority shall be restored in a firm and 
stable manner and assured against all 
violence. The Pontifical sovereignty is of 
such importance for Christian States that 
it can by no means be left at the mercy of 
a small part of the Catholic world like 
the Roman States." 

On the 18th of April, 1849, Cardinal 
Antonelli, in the name of Pius IX., for- 



CARDINAL JAMES ANTONELU. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 159 

mally solicited the aid of France, Austria, 
Spain, and other Catholic nations. All 
responded to the appeal except Sardinia, 
and the plenipotentiaries met at Gaeta. 

In this conference it was agreed that 
Austria should occupy Romagna, and the 
king of Naples the southern part of the 
States of the Church. Spain offered to 
reduce Kome, the only difficult and 
dangerous part of the plan ; but France 
claimed it of right as the Eldest Daughter 
of the Church. The decision was im- 
mediately acted upon. The Austrians, 
after defeating at Novara the king of 
Sardinia, who was really supporting the 
radicals, occupied the Legations with fifty 
thousand men, taking Bologna and An- 
cona in May and June. Five thousand 
Spanish troops landed near Terracina, on 
the 29th of April, and reduced that city. 
On the 1st of May, twelve hundred Nea- 
politans entered Velletri. 

A French army under General Oudinot, 



160 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

Duke of Reggio, landed without opposition 
at Civita Vecchia, on the 25th of April, 
and marched on Rome. 

The condition of that city, after the de- 
parture of the Holy Father, had been 
terrible indeed. A mob of criminals of 
every description from all parts of Italy 
had gathered there, and were the real 
masters of Rome. When, on the 9th of 
February, the Assembly, which made it 
almost a rule that every member should 
have been in prison or in the galleys, de- 
clared the rule of the Pope abolished, the 
peaceful, quiet citizens were struck dumb. 
They had stood idly by, till the Pope in 
the hands of the revolutionists was power- 
less. Now they beheld what masters had 
succeeded the mild and gentle rule of the 
Popes. 

Yet there were shouts and acclama- 
tions. The clubs collected their followers, 
and by wild declamation gathered many 
of the young and excitable around them. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



161 



A triumvirate, consisting of Armelliui, 
Montecchi, and Salicetti, ruled for six 
weeks; then the two latter gave place to 
Saffi. and Mazzini. Pius IX., the vener- 
able representative of order and truth, 
had been replaced by Mazzini, the chief 
of the enemies of Christ, the very in- 
carnation of anarchy and social dissolution. 

The representatives of all the foreign 
powers had followed the Tope to Graeta. 
Nearly all the cardinals, with many pre- 
lates and ecclesiastics, had imitated their 
example. Foreign residents, not daring to 
face the scenes that might be enacted, 
withdrew. The wealthy retired to their 
country seats, the higher institutions of 
learning were closed, commerce and busi- 
ness were suspended. Rome, drained of 
its best and worthiest citizens, was filled 
with thieves, vagabonds, and assassins. 
A reign of terror exceeding in horror that 
of revolutionary France ensued. 

At first they pretended a respect for 



162 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

religion. The new Government heard 
high mass in St. Peter's on Easter Day, 
after finding a fallen priest base enough 
to say mass and give a benediction in 
mockery of the sovereign Pontiff. They 
decreed the restoration and repairs of all 
the churches; but in a few days pro- 
ceeded to confiscate them all, abolish re- 
ligious orders, seize on the sacred vessels, 
leaving only a single chalice to each 
church ; they even melted down the bells 
to make cannon. Churches became ball- 
rooms, theaters, or baths; the Vatican and 
Quirinal were converted into hospitals; 
convents were, so many barracks. Soon 
every church showed that the reign of 
Antichrist had be^un. The walls were 
polluted, the paintings torn down, statues 
of the saints mutilated, their reliquaries 
rifled ; even the Catacombs were profaned 
and the bones of animals piled in among 
the bones of the martyrs of the primitive 
Church. The Blessed Sacrament was ex- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 163 

posed to insults and profanations that are 
horrible even to think of. 

A few months made the city look as 
though it; had been swept by a horde of 
barbarians, and a quarter of a century 
has not effaced the destruction of that rev- 
olutionary rule of 1849. 

Murder was unpunished and tolerated. 
No one dared walk the street in the 
dress of a priest, except at the peril of 
his life. These assassinations or execu- 
tions as they were called amounted in a 
few weeks to one thousand. A Custom 
House officer 'named Zambianchi at the 
head of a band of assassins imprisoned 
and slew at his pleasure ; fourteen priests 
died at his hands in one day. The bodies 
of these victims were afterwards found in 
a common grave in the garden of the 
Benedictines near the Janiculum. The 
Triumvirate looked on, till the general 
movement of the Catholic powers cau- 
tioned some moderation. Then a number 



164 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



of priests were rescued from his "bloody 
hands. 

The Pope might justly invoke the 
powers to save his people from such 
monsters ! 

General Oudinot moved on Rome, and 
disaffection to the usurpers began to ap- 
pear even in the civic guards, who had been 
so unfaithful to Pius IX., but now saw 
their misguided folly. Mazzini disarmed 
several battalions. Had the French gen- 
eral pushed on, the city would have fallen 
without a blow. But Napoleon, Prince 
President of France, had yielded reluct- 
antly to the movement. He wished still 
to avoid any positive action against the 
Italian revolutionists. Oudinot was ham- 
pered by orders, and by the presence of 
cle Lesseps, who was sent to treat with 
the Triumvirs. This gave time for Gari- 
baldi with a band of desperate adven- 
turers to enter Rome. A spirit of re- 
sistance was at once aroused, and Garibaldi 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 165 

organized the defense with energy and 
cunning. 

When Oudinot, misled by crafty an- 
nouncements from Rome that the French 
had only to march in, appeared with four 
thousand men before the Cavallegieri 
Gate of the city, he was received with 
such a well-directed fire of musketry and 
artillery that he had to withdraw his 
troops, leaving as prisoners some who 
had been allowed to enter another gate. 

France was more loyal to the Holy 
Father than the ambitious President, and 
compelled him to give Oudinot forces suf- 
ficient to reduce Rome. 

On the 1st of June, the French troops 
stormed the Pamphili and Orsini villas on 
Mount Janiculum, though obstinately de- 
fended by volunteers from Lombardy. 
Garibaldi, with the best and most reckless 
of his soldiers, held the church of St. 
Pancras. This too was carried after a 
fearful carnage. 



166 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



Pius IX. had asked that Koine should 
not be bombarded. The cannon of the 
French were opened only on the walls. 
On the 29th of June, when the Catholic 
world was celebrating the feast of the 
Prince of the Apostles, the walls were 
breached, and the storming parties of the 
liberating army dashed into the city and 
held their ground. The Triumvirs asked 
a suspension of arms. Mazzini fled from 
the people whom he had outraged and op- 
pressed in the name of liberty. Gari- 
baldi retreated with the shattered rem- 
nant of his force toward the Adriatic. 
Barricades remained, but the courage of 
the desperate revolutionists who still at- 
tempted to hold out soon failed them. 
On the 3d of July, General Oudinot en- 
tered Rome at the head of his army, and 
dispatching Colonel Niel to Pius IX. as 
bearer of the keys of the city, began the 
work of restoring order. 
, The remaining soldiers of the revo- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



167 



lutionary forces were disarmed ; their 
clubs and political rendezvous suppress- 
ed. Murder, violence, and robbery were 
checked by prompt and unsparing punish- 
ment. Gradually the citizens returned, 
the churches were again opened ; schools 
resumed their usual courses, and Rome 
began to wear once more its usual appear- 
ance. 

The Pope appointed as a Council of 
Regency, till his return, Cardinals Delia 
Greng-a, Altieri, and Vannicelli. But the 

O 7 ' 

tortuous policy of Napoleon at once raised 
obstacles, to the return of Pius IX. from 
his exile. In a letter to Edgar Ney, whom 
he sent as a sort of unofficial representa- 
tive, he demanded from, the Pope a gen- 
eral amnesty, the secularization of the 
government, the adoption of the Code 
Napoleon, and a liberal government. The 
Prince President sought to reimpose on 
the Pope the very points of the Memo- 
randum of 1831 which Pius IX. had in 



168 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



the good faith of his heart sought to car- 
ry out, and which had borne such fatal 
fruits. 

The professed anxiety for liberal insti- 
tutions came strangely too from the lips 
of a man who was at that very moment 
plotting the overthrow of the French Re- 
public and the restoration of the Em- 
pire. 

For a time these intrigues deprived 
Rome of her Pontiff King. 

He remained at Gaeta, recognized as 
Sovereign of the Papal States by the civ- 
ilized world, and what was more, recog- 
nized by the Catholics in all lands as the 
Vicar of Christ, doubly endeared to them 
by suffering, exile, hatred, and persecution. 
From Gaeta he nominated bishops or con- 
firmed the names submitted : he replied 
to consultations addressed to him concern- 
ing difficulties that arose, or granted spirit- 
ual powers and dispensations. 

Pilgrims came from all parts of the 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 169 

world, bearing to the feet of the saintly 
exile the expression of their veneration. 
He received them all. Addresses without 
number poured in from all lands. He re- 
plied to them all. 

The course of events compelled the bish- 
ops in various countries to assemble, some 
for the first time in many years, and all 
submitted the result of their deliberations 
to the banished Pope. America, happier 
in her freedom, assembled under the 
Pontiff's direction, and in his name a 
Plenary Council of all the Catholic arch- 
bishops and bishops in the United States 
at Baltimore. Before its solemn opening, 
on hearing that Pope Pius IX. would 
probably visit France, the hierarchy of 
this new-risen Church through the Arch- 
bishop of Baltimore, invited him to ex- 
tend his journey to America and pre- 
side at the Plenary Council. He replied 
as follows : 



170 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

"Pius, PP. IX. 

" Venerable brother, health and apostol- 
ical benediction : 

" We have received with the greatest 
pleasure the expression of your particular 
regard and love for us, and, well aware of 
your religion and faith in the Church, we 
are not surprised to learn that the mo- 
mentous trials which the head of the 
Church, the Roman Pontiff, has to con- 
tend with have filled you, venerable 
brother, with the most bitter grief. Al- 
though our afflictions would overpower 
us, without a special assistance from God, 
yet being able to do all things in him who 
strengthened us, we are prepared to suf- 
fer most cheerfully any kind of tribula- 
tion, if our labors will only contribute to 
the peace, advantage, and safety of the 
Church. And having the divine promise 
that Christ the Lord will be with his 
Church to the consummation of the world, 
and that the gates of hell will never pre- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX 



171 



vail against it, we are exceedingly ani- 
mated and encouraged by this belief, and 
amidst the most trying difficulties we 
experience a great consolation, while we 
wait for assistance from above. 

" God, indeed, will not be wanting to 
his promises; commanding the winds and 
the sea, he will make peace, and will show, 
as you have well said, venerable brothers, 
that the present dreadful storm has been 
raised for manifesting the greater glory 
of his name, and achieving the more bril- 
liant triumph of his holy Church. As 
you have signified your earnest wish that 
we should assist at the Provincial Council 
which you are about to hold, according to 
custom, with our other venerable brethren, 
the bishops of the United States of Amer- 
ica, be assured that nothing could afford 
us more pleasure, nothing could be more 
grateful to our hearts than to enjoy the 
presence and conversation of yourself and 
the same venerable brethren, to embrace 
8 



172 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



you all with affection, to express to you 
the sentiments of profound regard which 
we entertain for each one of you, and to 
congratulate you upon the pastoral zeal 
for which you are distinguished, and the 
well-known solicitude with which you 
labor so assiduously, in the discharge of 
your functions, to extend the glory of 
God, to promote our most holy religion, 
and to secure the salvation of the beloved 
flocks committed to your care. 

" But as, in the existing times and cir- 
cumstances, it would be impossible for us 
to comply with your invitation, as your 
wisdom will easily understand, venerable 
brother, we request you to make known 
to the prelates these sentiments of our 
mind, and to inform them of the apostoli- 
cal benediction, which from our inmost 
heart we affectionately impart to you, to 
them, to all the clergy of that country, 
and to all your faithful people. 

"Given at Gaeta, the 8th day of March, 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



173 



1849, in the third year of our pontifi- 
cate. 

"Pius PP. IX." 

From Gaeta, Pius IX., adopting a new 
method of ascertaining the opinions of 
the bishops throughout the universe, whom 
it was not possible under existing circum- 
stances to assemble in a general council, 
consulted them on a point very dear to 
his heart, a decisive definition in regard to 
the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed 
Virgin. On the 2d of February, 1849, 
he heard some proceedings in the cause of 
the beatification of a venerable servant of 
God, Anthony Mary Zaccaria, and a de- 
cree was issued recognizing his heroic vir- 
tues ; then, in reply to an address, he spoke 
at length of the troubles which afflicted 
the Church at large, and seemed to center 
on Rome : 

" O Rome, Rome ! God is my witness 
that I daily raise my voice to the Lord, 



174 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

and, prostrate as a suppliant, ardently be- 
seech him to arrest the scourge which 
desolates thee, and daily presses with new 
weight upon thee ! I implore him to stay 
the suggestions of the most perverse doc- 
trines, and to banish from the walls and 
the whole State the political declaimers 
who abuse the name of the people." 

That same day he addressed an ency- 
clical letter to the patriarchs, primates, 
archbishops, and bishops of the world. 
After reciting the almost universal appeal 
of Christian piety in favor of this belief, 
so that the complete manifestation seemed 
sufficiently prepared by the liturgy, by 
the formal requests of the bishops, and 
by the labors of learned theologians, he 
proceeds to declare that this general dis- 
position was in perfect unison with his 
own thoughts, and that amid the horrible 
calamities of the Church, he would be 
greatly consoled to add a new gem to 
the crown of the all-powerful Virgin, and 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 175 

to acquire a special claim on her pro- 
tection. 

With this view he had, as he now 
announced, established a coniniission of 
cardinals to examine the question, and he 
invited all his venerable brethren in the 
episcopate to transmit their opinions to 
him, and to blend their supplications with 
his to obtain light from on high. 

The belief that Mary had, in the designs 
of the eternal Trinity, been exempted from 
the consequences of Adam's fall, to fit her 
for the exalted dignity to which she was 
to be raised as Mother of our Eecleemer, 
had prevailed among the faithful in all 
ages, though not authoritatively taught. 
During the ages of faith, when all men 
believed in the fall of man, the doctrine 
of original sin, and the necessity for re- 
demption of the grace purchased by the 
precious blood of Christ, subtle disjDutants 
in the schools had on the one side put the 
doctrine in a scholastic proposition, and 



176 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS LX. 



on the other raised objections. But the 
faith of the pious was untouched, and 
when the discussions seemed likely to 
cool and diminish piety, the Popes had 
interposed and set bounds to the oppo- 
sition. 

Now that the fundamental doctrines 
of Christianity were everywhere openly 
denied ; when Europe was actually in the 
hands of secret societies, which, ignoring or 
denying Christ, sought, as the first great 
step in their plans, the destruction of the 
Church, Pius IX. believed the moment 
come for a solemn definition that would 
give new life to Catholic piety and 
faith. 

On the 20th of April, 1849, he addressed 
the cardinals in a secret consistory as he 
would have done at Rome ; and his allo- 
cution reviewed the whole situation of the 
Church, and the evils that afflicted it, as 
well as the position in which he found 
himself, and the fearful condition of Home 




LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 177 

and his States, where vice was rampant, 
religion proscribed, and the most profli- 
gate of either sex were now placed by 
authority at the bedside of the dying, 
instead of the ministers of religion. 

This devotion of the Pope to his spi- 
ritual duties, these purely theological 
thoughts, when the very ground seemed 
crumbling beneath his feet, drew on the 
sovereign Pontiff the sarcasms of human 
wisdom. They did not at first perceive 
that this step of Pius IX., which many are 
too ignorant or blind to understand, was 
a triumphant answer to all the errors of 
the age. The very form of promulgation 
adopted drew all the churches of the 
world into closer union with Rome. Piety 
was aroused, and the doctrine, old as the 
Church, became a source of life and 
strength. Then impiety raged against the 
ne^ 'J dogma, which it finally saw to be a 
weapon it could not parry and a shield 
it could not pierce. 



178 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

Never was tlie Pope more actively en- 
gaged in the affairs of the Church than at 
Gaeta. The turmoil of civil affairs com- 
pelled the bishops in France and Germany 
to assemble. The governments that had 
sought to fetter the Church were now 
glad to leave her at liberty. Councils 
were held and their deliberations came to 
Gaeta for the approval of the successor of 
St, Peter, 

In Tuscany the bishops in the Chamber 
of Deputies protested against the irre- 
ligious press. The Pope wrote to sustain 
their zeal. Brilliant minds in Italy had 
been dazzled by the glare of liberal 
promises ; three priests, whose influence 
with learned and unlearned was great, 
Gioberti, Posmini, Ventura, broached 
errors which Pius IX. condemned; two 
submitted to the decision, renouncing all 
self-love; but Gioberti, in his self-will, 
preferred to forfeit his high prerogative 
of Catholic. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 179 

Under his impulse efforts were made 
everywhere to secure freedom of educa- 
tion for Catholics. On all sides every 
form of error opposed to Catholic truth 
bends its energies to secure the children 
of Catholics, and train them up in hatred, 
or shame, or ignorance of their faith. It 
is the great battle of the age ; and Pope 
Pius IX. has constantly urged unwearied 
vigilance and earnestness in the struggle. 
We must train our children for heaveD, or 
the world will train them for destruction. 
But the question of freedom of education 
is subtly involved, and so it was in France. 
Pius IX. counseled and encouraged the 
bishops in the struggle. 

In Naples, Pius IX. obtained in May, 
1848, freedom for the diocesan seminaries; 
the bishops were relieved from State in- 
terference in their direction. A concordat 
with Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, 
obtained similar liberty. Francis Joseph, 
of Austria, abolished the odious proscrip- 



180 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

tions of Joseph II. against the Church 
and its liberties. By an imperial ordi- 
nance of April 18, 1850, he declared the 
faithful and the clergy free to correspond 
with the Pope — for our readers will hardly 
credit it, yet in fact for nearly a hundred 
years no Catholic bishop in that country 
could write to the Pope without sub- 
mitting his letter and its reply to the 
government, and even Protestant officers 
thus decided on Catholic questions. By 
the just rules of Francis Joseph, bishops 
could now issue pastorals to their flock, 
pronounce ecclesiastical censures, suspend 
clergymen who violated the laws of the 
Church, and regulate their dioceses, without 
first asking the permission of government. 
Pius IX., in his allocution of May 20, 1850, 
gave due praise to the monarch who had 
thus delivered the Church from a cruel 
bondage. 

But while his heart was consoled to see 
the Church thus left free to pursue her 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 181 

great work, he was grieved to find Sar- 
dinia joining the revolution in all its 
hostility to the Church and to the true 
interests of human society. The Siccardi 
law passed in that country abolished the 
concordat existing between the govern- 
ment and the Pope, confiscated the prop- 
erty and revenues of the Church, placed 
the pulpit under police supervision, and 
struck a blow at the sacrament of matri- 
mony, by declaring marriage a mere civil 
contract. The noble archbishop of Turin, 
Monsignor Franzoni, for addressing his 
clergy on the rights of the Church, was 
torn from his palace and flung into a dun- 
geon, consoled by his conscience and by 
the encouraging words of the Pope. 

Amid all these cares of the universal 
Church, Pius IX. lived his simple life at 
Gaeta; visiting the churches and sanctu- 
aries, taking his walks among the pious 
people, who looked with reverence on that 
benign countenance, and that head pre- 



182 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



maturely whitened by the hand of care. 
The cathedral of Gaeta became a new St. 
Peter's. The royal family came in the 
spring to reside near the Pope. They 
took part in the functions at the cathe- 
dral, where, during Holy Week, Pius IX. 
officiated as at Rome, and gave his bless- 
ing to kneeling thousands from the bal- 
cony of the bishop's palace. 

On the 4th of September, Pius IX. 
sailed to Naples with the royal family, 
one member just baptized, and another 
confirmed by him. The next day he 
landed at the haven of Portici, at the spot 
where the first Pope had landed eighteen 
centuries before. 

Here his life was a repetition of that 
at Gaeta; he went about blessing and 
consoling. 

■ \ 

. \ \ \ , ■ ' .1. . 



LITE OF POPE PIUS IX. 185 

CHAPTER VII. 

Pius IX. Restored to Rome. — His Edict of 
September 12, 1849. — His Return to 
Rome. — The English Hierarchy. — The 
Church and the World. 

The attitude of the President of the 
French Republic had brought affairs into 
a strange position. Rome was rescued 
from the revolutionists and in the hands 
of France ; Austria held the legations ; 
Naples and Spain other parts of the 
Papal States. France had attempted to 
dictate to the Pope the line of policy he 
was to pursue. Pius IX. could not sacri- 
fice his independence. The French min- 
istry, lacking alike noble courage to con- 
demn Napoleon's schemes, or hardihood 
to approve them, was dismissed. The 
President abandoned his ideas for a time. 
The Pope was left free to rule the Papal 
States. 

On the 12th of September, 1849, Pius 



186 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



IX., by an edict issued at Portici, regulated 
the form of government for his States. 
A Council of State was established, which 
was to give advice on all proposed laws 
before they were submitted to the sover- 
eign sanction, and on all questions of im- 
portance in the administration. There was 
to be a consulta for finances, a council in 
each province, while the existing muni- 
cipal institutions were to be maintained. 
A general amnesty was proclaimed, from 
which were excluded only those who had 
taken part in the revolutionary govern- 
ment, or held office under it, and of all 
who, after profiting by the Pope's first 
amnesty, had in any way acted against 
the promise then given. 

This edict was published in Home on 
the 20th, by a Papal Commission of four 
cardinals, and the Pontifical Government 
again duly inaugurated. Rome began to 
breathe freely, and a feeling of security 
was once more felt as the people emerged 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX, 187 

from the recent terrible dream. The 
wealthy returned, strangers poured in, the 
streets began to resume their usual ap- 
pearance. The activity crushed by the 
pseudo republic was awakened. The paint- 
er and sculptor were in their studios ; the 
workmen in their shops ; the merchants of 
greater and less importance filled up their 
stock, and looked forward to a revival of 
business under the mild and beneficent 
rule which had so often saved Rome. 
Religion was again free. The clergy and 
religious moved through the streets ; the 
churches began to be thronged with pious 
worshipers, the offices of religion were 
again celebrated with pomp. There were 
still, of course, men imbued with the 
spirit of the revolution, men who had 
joined in all the outrages, who looked 
with an evil eye on v the French and on the 
clergy; and their old hate was shown 
occasionally in assassinations. But the 
reaction had set in and rapidly pervaded 



188 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

all classes. As has been well remarked : 
" Independently of the anxiety to behold 
once more that familikr countenance which 
never looked but with love upon the 
people, there was no class, no interest, no 
industry, that had not suffered from the 
wild and stormy period which, commencing 
with the flight to Gaeta, did not end till 
the Pope's Government was fully restored. 
To have him once more in his own palace 
was now the most anxious wish of his 
peojjle ; and this feeling was frequently 
expressed through deputations earnestly 
praying for his return." 

The moment came at last. On the 4th 
of April, 1850, Pius IX. left Portici for 
his own city. Ferdinand, with his whole 
court, escorted him to the frontier. On 
parting with his august guest, the king 
knelt, with his son and successor, to 
ask a last blessing. " Oh, yes ! yes ! " 
exclaimed the Pope; "with all my 
heart I bless you, your family, and your 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 189 

kingdom. And would that I could ex- 
press all my gratitude and that of the 
universal Church for the generous hos- 
pitality which I have received from you." 
"Most Holy Father" replied the king, 
" I have only done my duty as a Christian, 
and I shall thank God as long as I live 
for giving me the opportunity to fulfill it." 
" Yes," replied Pope Pius IX., " but your 
filial piety has been great and deep. Once 
more may God reward and bless you." 
Then he pressed the pious monarch to 
his heart. 

The thought of what was then hidden, 
but is now before our eyes, rises to the 
mind. As faithful Poland and faithful 
Ireland seem in God's providence to be 
visited here with persecution, so all who 
befriended Pius IX. seem visited in this 
world with affliction at the hands of the 
enemies of the faith. We shall see, in the 
course of events, Pius receiving and con- 
soling the dethroned King of Naples, 



190 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

Queen of Spain, and Empress of France. 
Entering his own dominions as their 
sovereign, the Pope received a welcome 
all the more enthusiastic, as the people 
felt that reparation was to be made for 
the past. At every city on his route 
magnificent preparations were made for 
his reception. At Velletri the commander 
of the French army of occupation came to 
pay his homage. 

His whole course from Portici to his 
arrival in Kome on the 12th of April was 
one triumph. Then, amid the thunder of 
cannon, the joyous ringing of bells, and 
hearty shouts of joy, the Pope entered 
the city by the St. John's gate, but entered 
it in tears. He had sought no earthly 
triumph, he had no ambition to gratify ; 
but care and trial, weary days and anxious 
nights were before him. 

Kome was in an ecstasy of joy; the 
Te Deum rolling up to the mighty dome 
of St. Peter's was caught up throughout 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



191 



the world ; and a feeling of glad consolation 
tilled all hearts. But the sovereign Pon- 
tiff, after receiving the official felicitations 
at St. John Lateran, and once more bless- 
ing the city and the people from the bal- 
cony, took up his residence at the Vatican, 
as one bowing to receive the cross. 

Pius IX. signalized his return to Rome 
by an extension of the amnesty, and by 
the publication of a new indulgence in 
form of Jubilee. He had recovered his 
people, the real Roman people, and he 
wished all Catholics, to the uttermost 
parts of the world, to participate in 
his joy; he wished to see no clouded 
brows around him. He frequently re- 
peated these noble words : " I return as a 
pastor, not as an avenger; in urbem re- 
versus pastor et non ultorP The tradi- 
tional policy of the sovereign Pontiff, as 
well as his own tender piety, prompted 
Pius IX. thus to diffuse over the world, in 
prosperity as in adversity, the divine 



192 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

blessings of which the Vicar of Christ is 
the depository. 

In his restored government the Pope 
selected, as his Secretary of State and 
Prime Minister, Cardinal Antonelli, who 
continued to discharge his important du- 
ties till his death in 1876. His court re- 
called names associated with the grand- 
eurs of the Church : Monsignor Medici, of 
a family that had given several Popes, was 
Grand Master of the Palace ; his Grand 
Chamberlain, Count Edward Borromeo, 
was of the family of Saint Charles ; 
Pacca, Master of the Chamber, was a 
nephew of the famous cardinal of the 
name. The Count de Falloux, Prince 
Hohenlohe, Count Xavier de Merode, 
Talbot de Malahide, represented in his 
household, France, Germany, Belgium, and 
Ireland. He wished the whole world to be 
represented, also, in the Sacred College. 
When he ascended the Pontifical throne, 
only nine of the sixty-one living cardinals 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 193 

had been born beyond the limits of Italy. 
In his first promotion, after his return to 
the holy city, of the fourteen prelates 
honored by this dignity, only four were 
Italians ; the rest were selected among the 
most eminent men of the Catholic world. 
The fourteen cardinals of this promotion 
were : Monsignor Figueredo, archbishop 
of Braga in Portugal ; Monsignor Bonnel 
y Orbe, archbishop of Toledo, and Mon- 
signor Komo, archbishop of Seville in 
Spain; Archbishop Geissel of Cologne, 
Bishop Sommerau Bekh, of Olmutz ; 
Prince Bishop Doepenbrock, of Breslau 
in Germany ; Archbishop Wiseman, of 
Westminster in England; Monsignor Co- 
senza, archbishop of Capua ; Monsignor 
Pecci, Bishop of Gubbio, Monsignor Fer- 
rari, Nuncio Apostolic at Paris, and Mon- 
signor Roberti. 

The appointment of an English cardi- 
nal was connected with one of the great 
works of the reign of Pius IX., the res- 
13 



194 LIFE OF POPE PLUS IX. 

t oration of the hierarchy in England, 
crowning with the splendors of the 
Church the Catholic emancipation won by 
the zeal and perseverance of O'Connell, 
twenty years before. From the days of 
Elizabeth, when the last of the hier- 
archy founded by Augustine died, Eng- 
land in her Catholic children, had, amid 
trial and persecution, been governed by 
archpriests and then by Vicars Apostolic. 
Gregory XVI. had increased these in 
number to meet the increasing wants of 
the Church, which- won earnest and hum- 
ble Catholics by emigration from Ireland, 
and men of learning, zeal, and devotedness 
by conversions among the most cultured 
and noblest of England's sons. To the 
great mind of Pius, the moment seemed 
present when a regular hierarchy should be 
established. After consulting the Eng- 
lish prelates and the College of Cardinals, 
the Pope, on the 29th of September, 1850, 
published the bull Universalis Eccleske, 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 195 

by which the See of Westminster was 
erected, and the illustrious Nicholas 
Wiseman appointed its first archbishop. 
Twelve other sees as suffragans, consti- 
tuted the new hierarchy. Pius IX. in 
carrying out his great work conformed to 
the spirit of the Emancipation Act, which, 
providing for such a step on the part of 
the sovereign Pontiff, forbade any Cath- 
olic bishop to assume as the title of his 
see the name of any actually filled by 
one adhering to the Church of England. 
The new sees were Westminster, the 
Metropolitan, South wark, Hexham, Bev- 
erly, Liverpool, Salford, Shrewsbury, New- 
port, Clifton, Plymouth, Nottingham, Bir- 
mingham, and Northampton. 

The hearts of the Catholics were filled 
with consolation and hope, on beholding 
the Church organized once more as fully 
as in the most Catholic countries, and the 
new archbishop raised almost immediate- 
ly to the dignity of cardinal ; but while 



196 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



it afforded consolation to their hearts, it 
roused a storm of fury in Protestant Eng- 
land that it is impossible to explain or de- 
scribe. The press, ever eager to fan any 
excitement, teemed with articles on what 
was styled the Papal aggression. The 
clergy of the Established Church took up 
the alarm, and the pulpit echoed the cry, 
while charges and documents of all kinds 
were circulated among their flocks. Par- 
liament even considered the question, and, 
to appease the popular fury, passed, on 
the 2d of August, 1851, a law which for- 
bade any Catholic bishop in England or 
Ireland to take the title of his see. Fine 
and imprisonment awaited any one who, 
knowing of a violation of this law, neg- 
lected to denounce the offending bishop. 
The law was passed, although during the 
debate it was admitted that it could not 
be enforced. 

In England the bishops and clergy did 
nothing to fan the popular outbreak. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



197 



Relying on divine Providence to quell the 
tempest by a word, tliey sought by their 
zeal and devotion to their holy calling to 
show how little ground existed for the 
panic fears. An appeal to the English peo- 
ple, in all the grand and dignified language 
of Christian eloquence which Cardinal 
Wiseman could employ, was unheeded at 
the time ; but in a few years wiser counsels 
prevailed. No prosecutions followed the 
constant violations of the law ; the 
Church pursued its work among the poor 
and lowly, unchecked and undismayed ; 
her bishops showed their fellow-citizens 
that they were as truly English and 
worthy of esteem, when called by an 
English title, as they had been when 
their titles were derived from some see 
in the parts of the infidels. 

The opposition in England was noisy, 
but not attended with any real persecu- 
tion. But there were other lands where 
the Pope had to deplore violence toward 



198 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



the faithful bishops and people. New 
Granada, led away by designing men un- 
der the influence of secret societies, as- 
sailed the liberties and rights of the 
Church. Pope Pius IX. in 1847 had ad- 
dressed a kindly remonstrance to the 
president of that republic, but this did 
not check the course of anti-Catholic leg- 
islation. In 1850, the seminary of Bo- 
gota w^s confiscated ; and the next year 
the visitation of convents by the bishops 
was prohibited ; a law required the peo- 
ple to elect the parish priests, while canons 
were to be elected by the provincial coun- 
cils ; the clergy were deprived of their 
revenues, and the Congress assumed the 
ri^ht of fixino; their salaries and defining 
their duties. We shall see the same idea 
taken up in other parts. It is one of the 
great schemes of the anti-Catholic revolu- 
tion. Men who do not belong to the 
Catholic Church, and avowedly seek its 
injury, hope in this way to weaken it and 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 199 

break up its divine organization. They 
talk of justice and liberty ! but are not 
Catli olios entitled to justice and liberty, 
and should they be forced to accept fun- 
damental changes in their Church, when 
neither clergy nor people desire them ? 

In New Granada the bishops and priests 
with one accord protested against the 
changes ; they were imprisoned and ex- 
iled. The Vicar Capitular of Antiocjuia 
alone showed feebleness of mind; he 
yielded, but was severely rebuked by the 
sovereign Pontiff, who called upon him to 
suffer nobly with his brethren. The arch- 
bishop of Bogota, Seiior Mosquera, and 
many of his suffragans were driven into 
exile, and the republic was almost de- 
prived of bishops. The voice of the 
country was roused against the persecu- 
tors, and fearing a general outbreak the 
persecution gradually relaxed. 

Germany showed another example of 
the world's war on the Church. With 



200 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

crime of every kind unrepressed, witli 
secret societies unchecked in their efforts 
to undermine the very basis of civil soci- 
ety, governments turn all their energies 
to banish, imprison, thwart, and molest the 
ministers of the Church, whose whole vo- 
cation is to make men the best of citizens, 
The Grand Duchy of Baden claimed the 
right to appoint parish priests and other 
Catholic laborers in the ministry. The 
government even declared that Catholic 
seminarians must, before they could be 
ordained, undergo an examination before 
civil officials. Archbishop Vicary of Fri- 
burg, a venerable old man bending be- 
neath the weight of eighty years, nobly op- 
posed the absurd and tyrannical law. He 
was dragged before the courts and put 
under police supervision, like a criminal. 
His faithful priests were imprisoned, 
exiled, or fined. Catholic Germany was 
roused. Indifference could no longer pre- 
vail. Men had to come forward zealously 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 201 

for the Church, or turn openly against her. 
The great mass rallied around the stand- 
ard of the Church. The bells and organs 
were silent in the House of God ; before 
the general emotion, the government of 
Baden yielded, while Wurteinberg, Hesse 
Cassel, and Nassau, which had attempted 
a similar policy, halted in their evil 
course, and then the Catholics in those 
States enjoyed a season of peace, till 
Prussia once more disturbed the religious 
harmony that prevailed in Germany. 

In countries that professed to be faith- 
ful to Catholicity Pius IX. found the 
struggle more difficult. Sardinia not only 
refused to recall the exiled bishop of 
Turin, but tore from his see the arch- 
bishop of Cagliari, and menaced many 
other bishops with the same fate. Sup- 
ported by government, a professor in the 
Royal University of Turin attacked the 
Catholic doctrines, and publicly denied that 
matrimony was a sacrament. In vain did 



202 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



the Pope condemn his works. The Sar- 
dinian Government, arrayed against the 
Church, turned a deaf ear. It was pre- 
paring a law that assailed that sacrament. 
The king, with the usual subterfuge, ac- 
cused the clergy of disloyalty and of 
making war on the monarchy. The Pope 
in a letter to the king put the question 
in its true light. M If by words provoking 
insubordination are meant the writings 
of the clergy against the proposed mar- 
riage law, we declare without indors- 
ing the language which some may have 
adopted, that in opposing it the clergy 
simply did their duty. We write to your 
Majesty that the law is not Catholic. 
Now if the law is not Catholic, the clergy 
are bound to warn the faithful, even 
though by doing so they incur the great- 
est dangers. It is in the name of Jesus 
Christ, whose Vicar, though unworthy, we 
are, that we speak, and we tell your Ma- 
jesty, in his sacred name not to sanction 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 203 



this law, which will be the source of a 
thousand disorders. We also beg your Ma- 
jesty to put a check to the press which is 
constantly vomiting forth blasphemy and 
immorality. Your Majesty complains of 
the clergy; but these last years the clergy 
have been persistently outraged, mocked, 
calumniated, reviled, and derided by al- 
most all the papers published in Pied- 
mont.' 1 

But that State was given up entirely to 
the anti-Catholic war. Every year was 
to see it inflicting new wounds on the 
Church, causing new sorrows to the heart 
of Pius IX. 

(loa, in Hindostan, the last remnant of 
the once mighty possessions of Portugal 
in the East, had been for several years the 
scene of a schism caused by claims of a 
right of patronage, set up by the Portu- 
guese Government. To this dejDlorable 
state of affairs, so prejudicial to souls, Pius 
IX. put an end in 1851. 



204 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



Spain offered another field for the care 
of the sovereign Pontiff. That kino;dom, 
which had given the Church a Saint Isi- 
dore, a Saint Teresa, a Saint Ignatius, and 
a Francis Xavier, had, since 1832, groaned 
under anti-Catholic governments. Con- 
vents had been suppressed, religious or- 
ders banished, colleges and schools closed, 
libraries scattered to the winds, the prop- 
erty of the Church seized and sold, bish- 
ops' sees were vacant, and religion at the 
lowest ebb. Attempts made to restore 
Spain to the Church at last proved suc- 
cessful, and in 1851 Pius IX. concluded a 
concordat with Queen Isabella II, who in 
spite of her training showed a real and sin- 
cere love for the Church. Ecclesiastical 
property still unsold was to be restored ; 
what had already passed to other hands 
was renounced forever. But while the 
good Pope could make this sacrifice, he 
stipulated in the most positive terms for 
the teaching of sound Catholic doctrine 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



205 



in the seminaries and public schools, 
under the supervision of the bishops. 

Conventions with the republics of Gua- 
temala and Costa Rica gave an impulse 
to religion in those portions of Central 
America; and in 1850 Pius IX. erected 
Episcopal sees at Basse Terre, Gruada- 
loupe, as well as in Martinique and Re- 
union. 

Holland next claimed his attention. 
There a schism had lasted for more 
than a century. A series of bishops of 
Utrecht had been appointed against the 
wishes of the Pope. In 1853, the Pope 
induced the King of Holland to allow 
sees to be established for his Catholic 
subjects, and Harlem, Herzogenbosch or 
Bois le Due, Breda, and Roermonde be- 
came Episcopal sees. Here, as in Eng- 
land, there was an outburst of anti-Cath- 
olic feeling, for modern liberals have no 
liberality for the Church, and do not con- 
cede to the Catholics the right to manage 



206 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

their own affairs. But here, too, the ex- 
citement soon subsided. 

The little body of Catholic Armenians 
who still clung to the chair of unity re- 
quired more bishops to attend their scat- 
tered flock. Pius IX. established new 
bishops' sees. 

America, too, claimed his care. The 
rapid progress of the faith in the United 
States required the erection of new 7 sees, 
to give bishops in various parts where, 
but a few years before, the Church was 
scarcely known. Oregon became an arch- 
episcopal see in the very year of the ac- 
cession of Pius IX. In 1850, the Holy 
Father erected sees at Monterey, and 
Santa F6, in the Spanish Mexican terri- 
tory recently added to the United States, 
and in Savannah, Wheeling, St. Paul, and 
Nesqualy, and made the Indian Territory 
a vicariate under the charge of a bishop ; 
three years later new sees were estab- 
lished at San Francisco, Brooklyn, Bur- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX, 207 

lington, Covington, Erie, and Natchi- 
toches. 

France, with the Church full of activity 
and zeal, surrounded, however, by influ- 
ences which, dating from the horrors of 
the last century, were deeply infidel, of- 
fered much consolation to the heart of the 
Pope ; but the very zeal and energy of 
the Catholics in France led to extreme 
views and occasional dissensions, which 
threatened evil to the whole Catholic 
body, as the old Galilean feeling began to 
revive. This called forth from the Pope 
the encyclical Inter Mnltiplices addressed 
to the French bishops. He praised the 
bishops for their zeal in holding provincial 
councils and in restoring the Roman lit- 
urgy in dioceses where local ones had for 
a time jDrevailed, but he deplored the dis 
sensions which prevailed. " If there ever 
w T as a time," he says, " when you should 
preserve among you concord of mind and 
will it is now, especially when the Cath- 



208 



LIFE OF POPF PIUS IX. 



olic Church enjoys among you peace, 
liberty, and protection." He gave wise 
directions as to debated questions of the 
use of the Pagan classics in education, re- 
quiring them when used to be thoroughly 
freed of all that could contaminate the 
Catholic heart. He urged the bishops to 
favor with their encouragement the men 
who, versed in letters and science, and an- 
imated by the Catholic spirit, devoted 
their vigils to the composition of books 
and journals for the propagation and de- 
fense of the truth ; but he cautions these 
writers to use their talents in all submis- 
sion to the bishops whom Providence had 
appointed to direct, warn, and if necessary, 
censure them. 

The words of the Holy Father restored 
peace and harmony. In Germany the 
Church, freed by the events of 1848, show- 
ed new life and vitality. God prepared 
it for a coming struggle, as yet but dimly 
seen. The bishops assembled and gained 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



209 



ground, addressing the Austrian, Prussian, 
and Bavarian Governments in favor of 
the liberties of the Church ; the clergy 
gained many converts, the laity formed 
Catholic associations which took the name 
of Pius IX. As these grew, general con- 
gresses of their deputies met each year, and 
these assemblies addressed the Holy Father 
in words of devoted loyalty, and year by 
year he sent them his apostolical bene- 
diction, and to encourage them still more, 
granted special indulgences to the mem- 
bers. 

But these partial graces did not satisfy 
the loving heart of Pius IX. In the 
space of twenty years he no less than 
eight times granted to the Catholic world 
a plenary indulgence in form of Jubilee. 
No previous Pope had ever so liberally 
drawn on the treasury of the Church. 
He felfc that a war of opposition was 
at hand, and that it became him to arm 
his children with prayer. 



210 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



Every one of these grants was induced 
by grave reasons. The first was issued 
according to custom, when he took pos- 
session of the Church of St. John Late- 
ran. On the 25th of March, 1850, the 
Pope promulgated a second Jubilee to 
thank God for restoring the Pontifical 
throne, and to implore the Father of 
Mercies to still the fearful tempest that 
was sweeping over the globe, to preserve 
his flock from the allurements of error, to 
confound heresies, increase faith, and grant 
the Church repose and peace. This Jubi- 
lee was to replace the usual solemn one 
that should have been announced at the 
commencement of the year. 

On the 21st of November, 1851, in view 
of the great dangers that threatened the 
Church, he ordered public prayers in Rome, 
in order to appease the wrath of God, 
and directed the bishops throughout the 
world to have similar prayers offered. 
To stimulate the faithful to the holy ex- 



t 




MEDAL or POPE PIUS IX. us 1853. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 213 

ercise, lie granted for a month a plenary 
indulgence in the form of a Jubilee. 

Thus did the Holy Father spread 
throughout his immense flock the spirit 
of faith, of prayer, of union, of mutual 
charity, of zeal for the house of God, 
and a holy courage to meet all dangers 
and persecutions for the cause of God. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Definition of the Dogma of the Im- 
maculate Conception of the Blessed 
Virgin Mary. — The Accident at the 
Church of St. Agnes. — " Immaculate 
Virgin, Help Us ! " 

Exiled at Gaeta, Pius IX. had, in letters 
addressed to the Catholic bishops through- 
out the world, requested a statement of 
the belief immemorially held in each dio- 
cese in regard to the Immaculate Concep- 
tion of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Six hun- 
dred bishops, of all lands and tongues, at- 



214 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

tested that the bishops, clergy, and peo- 
ple had always believed that Mary was 
conceived without sin ; that from the first 
moment of her existence she was by a 
special privilege preserved from the orig- 
inal sin which attached to all other de- 
scendants of Adam and Eve. The point, 
as one not decided, may have been de- 
bated in the schools, but in the Catholic 
heart and in Catholic devotion there was 
no doubt. Not only did these bishops 
give their testimony to this fact, but nine 
out of ten, in replying to the Holy Father, 
earnestly urged him to give a doctrinal 
definition, that would place the belief 
among the dogmas of the Church, pre- 
vious decisions having so far paved the 
way that attacks on the doctrine had 
been absolutely forbidden. The plan 
adopted by Pope Pius IX. was possible 
only in our century, when communica- 
tion with all parts of the world has be- 
come easy and rapid. This too made it 




LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX, 215 

easy for numbers of bishops to respond 
to the call of the Holy Father, when he 
summoned all the bishops who could do 
so to assist him on the solemn occasion. 
One hundred and ninety-two bishops re- 
paired to Rome, representing the most 
widely-separated countries on earth. The 
Czar Nicholas of Kussia alone thwarted 
the wishes of the Holy Father, by forbid- 
ding the Catholic bishops in his States 
to visit the holy city; and his opposition 
was all the more strange, as the Greek 
Church rivals the Latin in the honors 
which it pays to Mary. 

The bishops thus gathered together, 
though not in a formal council, well rep- 
resented the Universal Church. Cardi- 
nals like Patrizzi, Wiseman ; archbishops 
and bishops like Fran son i of Turin, Eei- 
sach of Munich, Sibour of Paris, Bedini 
of Thebes, Hughes of New York, Kenrick 
of Baltimore, Dixon of Armagh, Mazenod 
of Marseilles, Bouvier of Mans, Malou of 



216 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

Bruges, Dupanloup of Orleans, Ketteler 
of Mayence, were there to aid by their 
counsels the commission of cardinals and 
theologians appointed to prepare the Bull. 
Never had Rome, since the general council 
of 1215, beheld such a gathering of emi- 
nent bishops. Meanwhile the whole Cath- 
olic world was in prayer, according to the 
counsel of the sovereign Pontiff, to obtain 
from the Holy Ghost a decision favorable 
to the honor of God, the glory of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary, and the salvation 
of the Church militant. 

The assembled bishops virtually decid- 
ed the infallible authority of the Pope in 
defining. When the question rose whether 
the bishops were to assist the Holy Father 
as judges in defining the dogma, or whe- 
ther it was to be the act of the supreme 
Pontiff alone, the bishops themselves, rising 
from their knees at the angelus, exclaimed, 
" Peter, teach us, confirm thy brethren." 

The eighth of December, 1854, was a 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 217 

glorious day for Rome. The whole city 
was full of pious joy ; citizens and stran- 
gers from all lands hastened to the vast 
basilica of St. Peter, now too small to 
contain them all. At last the procession 
arrives; bishops in miter and cope, in the 
order of their age, were followed by the 
cardinals. The Holy Father with a bril- 
liant group around him closed the impos- 
ing line, while the angels and saints were 
invoked in the litany to join the Church 
on earth in honoring the Queen of all 
Saints. 

When he had taken his seat on his 
throne, Pius IX. received the obedience of 
the cardinals and bishops, and the Pon- 
tifical mass began. As the chant of the 
gospel, in Greek and in Latin, died away, 
Cardinal Macchi, dean of the College of 
Cardinals, with the deans of the archbish- 
ops and of the bishops present, and an 
archbishop of the Greek and one of the 
Armenian rite, advanced to the foot of 



218 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



the throne and petitioned the Holy 
Father, in the name of the Universal 
Church, to raise his apostolic voice and 
pronounce the dogmatic decree of the 
Immaculate Conception, a motive of joy 
and gladness to heaven and earth. 

The Holy Father did not reply. He 
bowed his head, as if to convey an af- 
firmative answer. Then rising from his 
throne, he intoned the Veni Creator Spiri- 
tus in a loud, firm voice that ran £ through 
the basilica. Once more he implored the 
light of the Holy Ghost. Bishops, priests, 
and people mingled their voices with the 
clear tones of the Father of the Faithful, 
and the sacred hymn swelled in echoes 
through the mighty nave. 

At last silence fell, and the eyes of the 
hushed thousands were riveted on Pius 
IX. With a countenance transfigured by 
the solemnity of the act, he pronounced 
slowly, but in a mild, firm voice, the de- 
cisive words of the Bull Ineffabilis. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 219 

He first laid down the theological mo- 
tives for the belief in the privilege of 
Mary ; he then invoked the ancient and 
universal tradition, both in the East and 
West, the testimony of the religions orders, 
and the schools of theology, of the Holy 
Fathers and Councils, and finally the de- 
cisions of the Popes in earlier and later 
times. Then with deej) emotion he pro- 
ceeded : " After we had unceasingly, in 
humility and fasting, offered our own 
prayers and the public prayers of the 
Church to God the Father, through his 
Son, that he would deign to direct and 
confirm our mind, by the power of the 
Holy Ghost, and having implored the aid 
of the entire heavenly host, and invoked 
the Paraclete with sighs, and he thus in- 
spiring to the honor of the Holy and Undi- 
vided Trinity, to the glory and adornment 
of the Virgin Mother of God, to the ex- 
altation of the Catholic faith and the in- 
crease of the Catholic religion, by the au- 



220 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



thority of Jesus Christ, our Lord, of the 
Blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul — 

Here his voice trembled, and he stopped 
to wipe away the tears. While all full of 
awe hung on his words, he resumed, as if 
filled with enthusiasm : 

" We declare, pronounce, and define that 
the doctrine which holds that the Blessed 
Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her 
conception, by a singular privilege and 
grace of Almighty God, in virtue of the 
merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of 
mankind, was preserved immaculate from 
all stain of original sin, has been revealed 
by God, and therefore should firmly and 
constantly be believed by all the faithful. 
Wherefore, if any shall dare, which God 
avert, to think otherwise than as it has 
been defined by us, let them know and 
understand that they are condemned by 
their own judgment, that they have suf- 
fered shipwreck of the faith, and have 
revolted from the unity of the Church." 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS LX. 



221 



Thousands of voices answered a glad 
" Amen, be it so," and at once the bells of 
St. Peter's and the cannon of St. Angelo 
proclaimed to the world, that the Immacu- 
late Conception of the Blessed Virgin was 
defined as an article of faith. Then the 
solemn service continued after the formal 
acts of enrolling and attesting the Bull. 

The clay closed with unlimited re- 
joicings in Rome, and throughout the 
world the Bull, translated into all known 
languages, gave a new impulse to piety 
and devotion. Books explaining the 
new dogma were -prepared by men of the 
greatest learning and eloquence; hymns of 
singular beauty sprang from the hearts of 
Catholic poets; sanctuaries, altars, monu- 
ments, statues, associations rose on all 
sides in honor of the Immaculate Con- 
ception of the Blessed Virgin, and de- 
votion to Our Lady, which had been in- 
creasing already, now took such a new im- 
pulse that the unbelieving world around 



222 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



could not understand or explain this nine- 
teenth century devotion to Mary, though 
they felt it gave new life to the Church. 

A few months later, and an event oc- 
curred in which many a pious heart be- 
held an almost miraculous preservation of 
the life of the Pope, and this they as- 
cribed to the Blessed Virgin Immaculate. 

On the 12th of April, 1855, the fifth 
anniversary of his return to Kome from 
Gaeta, Pius IX. left the Quirinal at 
an early hour, and passing through the 
Via Nomentana, by the superb church 
of St. Agnes, reached* the Porta Pia. 
Nearly five miles beyond that city gate 
the Pope's carriage stopped at a spot 
where new catacombs had recently been 
discovered on grounds belonging to the 
Propaganda, containing, among other ven- 
erated tombs, those of Saint Alexander L, 
Pope and martyr, and of the companions 
of his triumph. Surrounded by cardinals 
and other prelates, generals and high of- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 223 

ficials, the Pope was received with respect 
by the professors and pupils of the Pro- 
paganda assembled to honor his visit. 
Pius IX. entered the crypt and knelt in 
prayer before the sacred remains of his 
predecessor, who more than seventeen cen- 
turies before had sealed his faith with his 
blood. After threading the long corridors, 
he seated himself on the ancient throne of 
the chapel, which doubtless several of his 
predecessors had occupied; and from it 
addressed the scholars of the Propaganda, 
in a touching allocution on the noble career 
before them as heralds of the faith. Then, 
after a few words to the distinguished 
retinue, he drove back to the church of 
St. Agnes. 

This sanctuary, rich in artistic beauties, 
is one of the most ancient churches in 
Home, having been erected by the Empe- 
ror Constantine at the request of his 
daughter, on the spot where the body 
of the saint was found. After visiting 



224 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

the Blessed Sacrament and venerating the 
relics of the lamb-like virgin martyr, he 
entered the adjacent convent of canons 
regular of Lateran, where a frugal repast 
had been prepared for their august visitor. 
The Holy Father then repaired to the par- 
lor, and the brilliant gathering of eminent 
personages enjoyed a cordial and animated 
conversation. Among those present were 
Archbishop Cullen of Dublin, and Bishop 
de Goesbrand of Burlington, while almost 
every Catholic country was represented. 
Just as the Pope was preparing to depart, 
the superiors of the Propaganda begged 
him to grant an audience to the scholars 
of that great seminary. Pius IX. con- 
sented with that charming affability pe- 
culiar to him, and resumed his seat on 
the arm-chair beneath a draped canopy. 
All eyes turned to the entrance, as more 
than a hundred young clerics came ra- 
pidly in. In an instant the floor gave 
way, and w^ith a fearful crush all in the 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 225 

room disappeared amid a confused mass 
of furniture, stones, and plaster, from 
which rose a blinding cloud of dust. The 
beams had yielded, and the whole sank 
down nearly twenty feet. 

The few inmates of the convent not in 
the room alone beheld the accident, but 
they stood rooted for some minutes to the 
spot, unable to think or to act. Suddenly 
the voice of the Pope was heard, the first 
to utter a word. It announced that he 
was safe and uninjured. Assistance came; 
the Holy Father was first extricated, safe, 
but full of care and anxiety as to the fate 
of all the eminent and illustrious men 
around him, and of the young levites on 
whom so many missions depended. While 
all kissed his hand or foot, or made anx- 
ious inquiries to be certain that he had 
escaped unharmed, he thought only of 
others, and urged the rapid extrication of 
all. He waited in the garden for the re- 
sult. One after another was rescued, 
14 



226 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

some bruised by the stones and beams, 
till the last of all was raised. Amid that 
crash, where it seemed impossible for so 
large a gathering all to escape with life, 
not one was even dangerously injured; 
all were safe. " It is a miracle," said 
the Pope. <l Let us go and thank God/' 
Escorted by his fellow-sufferers, and by 
those who had come up to rescue them, 
they entered the church, where the Holy 
Father, deeply affected, intoned the Te 
Deum, and gave the Benediction of the 
Blessed Sacrament. 

"Virgin Immaculate, help us," burst in- 
stinctively from the lips of Pius IX. as he 
felt the treacherous floor give way, and 
Mary granted him a miraculous assist- 
ance. She proved once more her power- 
ful intercession, by preserving her devoted 
servant and all his companions with him. 
The Pope, protected by the canopy, had 
not received the slightest bruise, and his 
confidence in the Blessed Virgin was un- 



LIFE OF POPE PITTS IX. 227 



bounded. While they were rescuing the 
fallen, Archbishop Polding, of Sydney, 
approached the Holy Father and begged 
him with tears to give his apostolic bless- 
ing to the wounded, perhaps dying, stu- 
dents in the ruins. " I have confidence in 
the Virgin Immaculate," replied the Pope; 
" not one life will be lost." His pious 
confidence was not misplaced ; all were 
soon completely cured of the slight bruises 
sustained. 

As the sentries at the door had pre- 
vented all entrance from without, nothing 
was known of the accident. The Pope 
drove toward the Quirinal blessing the 
kneeling groups on the way, his face 
lighted up with gratitude. But the car- 
riages that followed showed pale and anx- 
ious faces ; cardinals and persons of rank 
were seen in their carriages giving their 
usual places to young ecclesiastics evi- 
dently injured. 

The report of a great accident and a 



228 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

wonderful deliverance spread like wild- 
fire through Rome. The churches were 
crowded , the devotion of the Forty Hours 
was at once begun in Ara Cceli, and public 
prayers were offered for three days in all 
the churches of the city, while at St. 
Agnes a special service commemorated 
the miraculous event. 

The interior of the church has since 
been richly restored by Pius IX., and in a 
square court before the church is a fresco 
representing the deliverance of the Holy 
Father. 

The 12th of April has become a holi- 
day for Eome, kept every year with deep 
and pious gratitude. 

The Sardinian king, aspiring to dominate 
over the peninsula, eagerly took part with 
France and England in the war against 
Russia, and as one of the powers in- 
terested was admitted to the Congress of 
Paris, at the close of that struggle. The 
only question before the envoys of the 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 229 

different powers was the position of Tur- 
key; but Count Cavour, with that deadly- 
enmity of the Church which characterized 
all his policy, introduced the government 
of the Papal States,- as a subject demand- 
ing the action of the great European 
powers. Lord Palmerston, who delighted 
in creating discord where he could, and 
Walewski, the representative of the old 
Carbonari now Napoleon III., supported 
the views of the Sardinian statesman. The 
plot was formed for depriving the Pope 
of a large part of his territory known as 
the Legations, and placing them under a 
viceroy, intending, of course, to make 
that personage a mere tool of Sardinia. 
Prussia alone remonstrated at that time 
against this attempt to excite a rebel- 
lion against Pius IX. To carry out their 
plan, however, documents and pamphlets 
against the temporal power of the Pope 
began to appear. The most conclusive 
answer to all these was a report made to 



230 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

Napoleon III. by the Count de Rayneval, 
long French envoy at Rome. It covered 
the whole ground so completely that, 
though it was a serious work, the result 
of long experience and study, the French 
Government suppressed it. A few ex- 
tracts will show how it refuted the 
charges made against the government of 
Pius IX. 

" Every independent State is expected 
to suffice for itself, and to be able to main- 
tain its internal security by its own forces. 
The Court of Rome is reproached with 
falling short of this reasonable expec- 
tation ; the cause of its weakness is in- 
quired into, and it is generally believed to 
be the discontent awakened amono- its 
subjects by a defective administration. 
The real cause of the weakness of the 
Pontifical Government is a much more 
complicated one, and is, in fact, connected 
with quite a different class of ideas ; but 
it is a much more convenient and rapid 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 231 

mode of arriving at a conclusion to com- 
plain of the administration, rather than 
laboriously to interrogate the history and 

the tendencies of the Italian race 

During the last two centuries the general 
prosperity of the Pontifical system, and 
the abundant resources which flowed to 
Rome from all parts of the world silenced 
complaint. 

" It is a general opinion that the Pon- 
tifical administration is placed entirely in 
the hands of the priests. It is asserted 
that the priest, whose lot it is to defend 
the interests of heaven, understands no- 
thing of the interests of earth. People 
are unwilling to believe that the ecclesi- 
astics employed in the civil service by the 
Court of Home have most frequently no 
sacerdotal character, and that, far from 
monopolizing the whole of the adminis- 
tration, they have but a small share in it, 
are in fact a minority. I have often asked 
ardent opponents of the Roman rule what 



232 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

was their estimate of the number of 
priests employed in the administration. 
In answer to my question the number 
was generally stated to be about three 
thousand. No credit was given to me when 
I showed, with the proofs in my hands, 
that, taking them altogether, the number 
did not exceed one hundred, and that half 
these so-called priests were not in orders. 
And yet it is upon surmises thus ground- 
less that grave charges are based, which 
the public accepts as undeniable." 

This memoir took up the whole adminis- 
tration of Pius IX. ; the lightness of tax- 
ation; the small amount of public revenue 
taken for the support of the sovereign; the 
honorable course of the Pope in paying 
off the paper money issued, during his ex- 
ile, by the revolutionary government ; the 
introduction of revised codes of laws, gas, 
railroads, and telegraphs. It was, in fact, 
a triumphant, because calm and authen- 
tic defense of the government of Pius IX. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



233 



But in reality proof was not needed. 
The revolution had decreed that the Pope 
should be deprived of his States, and the 
different powers of Europe bowed obedi- 
ence. Napoleon III. maintained, however, 
an outward respect; he begged Pius IX. 
to become the godfather of his son, to 
whom he hoped to leave his throne; a 
new bishopric was created, and a new 
metropolitan see established, and finally 
the chapter of St. Denis was revived at 
his request. All this lulled the faithful 
Catholics into a feeling of security. 

But Pius IX. was not absorbed with the 
affairs of his States. As Pope he had for 
some years been negotiating with Austria, 
and on the 18th of August, 1855, signed 
a concordat with that empire, in which the 
freedom of the Church was fully recog- 
nized. " The Roman Pontiff having by 
divine right throughout the whole ex- 
tent of the Church the primacy of honor 
and jurisdiction, mutual communication in 



234 LITE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

what concerns spiritual tilings, and the 
ecclesiastical affairs of the bishops, clergy, 
and people with the Holy See, shall not 
be subjected to the necessity of obtain- 
ing a royal placet, but shall be entirely 
free. 1 ' 

The Pope, in an allocution in November, 
testified his joy at the happy result, which 
freed the Church from the shackles that 
Joseph II. in the last century imposed on 
the Church in Austria. In March, Pius 
IX. addressed a brief to the bishops of 
the empire to exhort them to profit by 
their independence, and to make every 
effort to stay the progress of indifferent- 
ism and rationalism in their dioceses. 

But while Austria thus consoled him, 
the pious Pontiff beheld with regret that 
the anti-Catholic party in Spain still per- 
sisted in its hostile course, continuing to 
sell Church property, prohibiting the re- 
ligious orders from receiving novices, and 
banishing several bishops from their dio- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 235 

ceses. The course of the Spanish Govern- 
ment became so violent that the Pope was 
compelled to recall his nuncio. 

Beyond the Atlantic the same spirit of 
infidelity, which has in this century been 
the bane of Spain, and reduced it to so 
low a grade among Euroj:>ean nations, is 
steadily sapping the strength of the Span- 
ish-American republics. Mexico especially 
showed the fruit of infidel books and ma- 
sonic associations. There the Congress 
forbade monastic vows, exiled the Arch- 
bishop of Mexico, and imprisoned the 
Bishop of Michoacan. These acts of vio- 
lence and violations of every true principle 
of human government were condemned by 
the Pope in 1855 and the following year. 
Three new sees in the United States were 
established by Pius IX. in 1857, to meet 
the increasing w r ants of the Church. Al- 
ton in Illinois, Fort Wayne in Indiana, 
and Marquette in Michigan, a city deriv- 
ing its name from the zealous missionary 



236 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



who first explored the Mississippi River, 
became centers of new life for the Church. 

In the year 1857 Pins IX. resolved 
to make a tour of his States. ~No better 
answer could be given to the charge that 
his government was unpopular. His re- 
ception at all points betokened the great- 
est enthusiasm, and though full liberty 
of expression was allowed, no real griev- 
ance was laid before him for redress. 

He left Rome on the 4th of May, 1857, 
amid fervent prayers and solemn benedic- 
tions. The whole city seemed gathered 
in the streets and squares to wish him a 
safe and speedy return. On the second 
day he entered Spoleto, where he was so 
long known and loved. Rather as a pilgrim 
than as supreme Pontiff, he arrested his 
course at Assisi to pray at the tombs of 
St. Francis Seraph and St. Clare, while at 
Loretto his whole soul seemed to pour 
forth in prayer, as he entered the Santa 
Casa which he had visited years before as 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 237 

a despondent levite in the Honse of God, 
debarred apparently from the lowliest 
place, yet destined by Providence to the 
highest. 

The Holy Father offered the sacrifice of 
the Mass in the home of Nazareth, that 
dwelling so miraculously preserved and 
removed. Pilgrims hastened to the altar, 
and many received communion from the 
hands of the Father of the Faithful, whom 
they soon beheld absorbed in prayer before 
the statue of Our Lady. 

Passing by Ancona he reached Siniga- 
glia, which exulted to receive a Pope whom 
it could claim as one of its sons. He had 
already shown his affection for his birth- 
place by erecting and endowing three new 
parishes, a hospital for the sick and in- 
curable, and a college which he commit- 
ted to the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, 
whose course. of studies made it rival the 
great universities. 

Other cities of the Pontifical States 



238 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

then welcomed the Pope-King, Pesaro, Ri- 
mini, Cesena, Imola, till he at last reached 
Bologna, next to Rome the most important 
city in his dominions. Here his reception 
was a splendid one. Missions had been 
preached in most of the chnrches, stran- 
gers flocked in, so that the population 
of seventy thousand was nearly doubled. 
The Holy Father lavished gifts on the 
city and left money to complete the noble 
church of St. Peter. The city, to show 
its veneration for the great Pope, be- 
stowed upon him a palace, in which he re- 
sided during his three months' stay, and 
which has since been seized by Victor 
Emanuel, whose base mind could stoop 
to deprive an aged Pontiff of a residence 
which was the gift of a grateful people. 
Bologna also presented to Pius IX. a mag- 
nificent state coach, long employed by 
him on solemn occasions. 

Pius IX. had thus traversed the Lega- 
tions which the false Cavour had repre- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 239 

sented as writhing under the Papal yoke, 
and he did not traverse them as sovereigns 
generally do their States, on the wings of 
steam. His tour lasted four months. It 
was a continued triumph, as the press of 
Europe, the hireling of the revolution, 
was forced to admit. The Pope moved 
around among his people, often on foot; 
all could approach and address him free- 
ly. He stopped to visit churches, charita- 
ble institutions, factories, and workshops, 
to examine public improvements in the 
ports and on the roads. Petitions were 
presented to him, but it was not for the 
abolition of priestly rule ; on the contrary 
they asked the restoration of the old or- 
der of things when cardinals and prelates 
were prefects. 

Pius IX. was welcomed not only as a 
beloved sovereign, but as a saint. People 
already began to talk of extraordinary 
graces obtained through his prayers, of 
cures wrought by touching articles that 



240 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



he bad worn. One day a mother, long 
disabled by sickness, made her way with 
her children through the crowd, and cried 
out, " I am a poor mother, and I am dy- 
ing; my two children here lose all when 
they lose me; save me, restore me to life!" 
Pius IX. stopped deeply moved. ''My 
clear child," said he, " unfortunately I am 
not what you imagine ; I have no power 
to control disease ; but I have a father's 
heart to console you, and I can give your 
soul one word of hope. My child, God is 
good, infinitely good. You do not per- 
haps pray enough. For nine days now 
address yourself to Him who is the Provi- 
dence of the orphan and the mother. I 
will unite myself to you during that time, 
and I hope that Heaven will hear you. 
Let us begin at once." He stood absorbed 
in silent prayer, the woman kneeling be- 
fore him, and all present in the same atti- 
tude. 

The Pope was not a mere tourist. At 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 241 

Bologna, he held a consistory on the 3d 
of August, at which several bishops were 
preconized. During his stay in that city 
many personages of royal rank hastened to 
render homage to the Pope. 

The Archduke Maximilian, later known 
as the unfortunate Emperor of Mexico, 
then Austrian governor of Lombardy ; 
Robert, Duke of Parma, and his mo- 
ther, and the Duchess of Modena hast- 
ened to Bologna to offer their felicita- 
tions in person. The Court of Turin sent 
a delegate, who began to declare the at- 
tachment of his government to religion 
and the Church; but the Pope interrupted 
him, telling him sternly to drop the sub- 
ject, or he would be forced to contradict 
him openly. 

Yielding to the invitation of the Grand 
Duke of Tuscany and Duke of Modena, 
Pius IX. visited Ferrara, Modena, Flor- 
ence, and Leghorn, his carriage in Tuscany 
being escorted by the Grand Duke and 



242 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

his sons. At Sienna, Pius IX. visited the 
home of St. Catharine, and touched with 
respect her books, writings, and instru- 
ments of penance, and prayed before her 
shrine in the Church of the Dominican 
Sisters. 

His return to Rome was welcomed with 
the wildest enthusiasm. The authorities, 
escorted by a select body of troops, and 
followed by thousands, came out of the 
city to receive the Holy Father at the 
Ponte Molle, where Constantine gained his 
famous victory under the ensign of the 
Cross. The public rejoicings ended on 
the 8th of September, by the inauguration 
of the monument erected in the Piazza di 
Spagna, to commemorate the promulga- 
tion of the dogma of the Immaculate Con- 
ception. The noble column is crowned 
by a bronze statue of Our Lady, fourteen 
feet high, and was inaugurated by the 
Pope, surrounded by the cardinals and 
the Diplomatic Corps. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 243 

Soon after his return to Rome, Pius IX. 
issued a manifesto, expressing his satisfac- 
tion at the condition of his States, and the 
loyalty everywhere manifested toward him. 

Soon after this an affair occurred which 
was greedily seized upon by the anti-Cath- 
olic agitators throughout the world, to in- 
augurate a series of attacks on the Pope. 
This was the Mortara affair. A law long 
established, forbade Jewish families to 
have Catholic servants, and ordained that 
when a Jewish child was, by the consent 
of the parents, or by means of Catholic 
servants illegally kept, baptized, and thus 
initiated into the body of the Catholic 
faithful, it should be brought up as a 
Catholic. The Mortara family at Bologna 
violated the law, and a Catholic nurse 
baptized a child, which was apparently at 
the point of death. Pius IX. allowed 
the law to take its course; the child 
was brought up as a Catholic, and in 
time became a priest. 



244 LITE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The French War against Austria. — Its Ee- 
sults. — The Sardinians seize Bologna 
and incite the legations to eevolt. 
— Duplicity of Napoleon III. — The King- 
dom of Naples seized. — Victor Emmanuel 
annexes the marches and umbria. — a 
Papal Army under Lamoriciere attempts 
to uphold the Pope's Authority. — Cas- 
telfidardo. — Ancona Capitulates.— The 
Maronites of the Lebanon. — Conver- 
sions in Bulgaria. — Hostility of the 
French Government. — The Canoniza- 
tion of the Japanese Martyrs. 

Terrified by the attempt of Orsini 
on his life, Napoleon III. at last resolved 
to support the revolutionary party in 
Italy, which, led by Sardinia, sought 
first to expel the Austrian s from the 
peninsula. The Emperor of France thus 
allied himself to the enemies of the Holy 
See, and prepared the way for the sacri- 
leges which were soon to follow. He did 




THE ANCIENT MONUMENTS OP ROME. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. .247 

not foresee the retribution; politically 
blind, he weakened Austria and enabled 
Prussia to obtain that mastery in Germany, 
which she used to drive Napoleon from 
his throne and grind France into the 
dust. 

On the 1st of January, 1859, the Em- 
peror Napoleon gave the first warning of 
war. Pamphlets and articles in French 
papers began to discuss the position of 
the Pope, and reproach him with being 
maintained in his States by foreign arms. 
Pius IX. silenced this by requesting in 
February that France and Austria should 
withdraw their troops. Neither country 
yielded to his request. Then in an ency- 
clical, dated April 27, he called upon the 
hierarchy throughout the world to gather 
their flocks around the altars and beg 
God to send peace. 

The French ministry declared that Na- 
poleon III. was loyal to the Holy See, and 
would maintain all its rights; but the 



248 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



truth was soon seen. The Grand Duke 
of Tuscany and the Duchess of Parma 
were driven out by conspiracies formed 
by Sardinian ambassadors, and similar 
agencies began to plot in the Legations. 

The young Emperor of Austria rushing 
unprepared into the war was defeated at 
Magenta and Solferino. Soon after the 
Austrian corps occupying Bologna, men- 
aced by a French corps under Prince 
Napoleon, abandoned that city without 
any notification to the Pope. The French 
allowed the Sardinians to seize the city, 
and excite Perugia to revolt. The Papal 
troops marched upon Perugia and easily 
recovered it; but the revolutionists who 
had shed so much innocent blood de- 
nounced the movement on Perugia as a 
massacre. Having the press at their com- 
mand, they spread far and wide their false 
and infamous charges against the Pope. 

The defeat of Austria roused the sym- 
pathy of Germany, and Prussia saw that 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 249 

she might be compelled to aid her Cath- 
olic rival. She telegraphed to Napoleon 
III. to offer peace at once. Austria ac- 
cepted the proposal and peace was made 
at Villafranca. Lombardy was given up 
to Sardinia, the Dukes of Tuscany, Mo- 
dena, and Parma were restored, and an 
Italian Confederacy was formed under the 
honorary presidence of the Pope. The 
very men who had exhausted all argu- 
ments to show that the Pope ought not 
to rule over a small State, now actually 
proposed to place all Italy under his presi- 
dency. 

But, in fact, the whole was a delusion. 
Cavour, the Prime Minister of Sardinia, 
never intended these provisions to be more 
than a dead letter, and Napoleon, by al- 
lowing him to carry out his plans un- 
checked, showed that he approved them. 
The duchies were not restored to their 
rulers, but occupied by Sardinian troops, 
under whose command they voted in favor 



250 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

of annexation to Sardinia. The same 
course was adopted in the Papal States. 
Bologna was occupied by a Sardinian 
army; Austrians and French had been 
for years in possession of portions of the 
States of the Church, but had never at- 
tempted to excite the people to revolt 
against the Pope; yet from the first the 
Sardinians stimulated and encouraged dis- 
affection. Bologna and Romagna estab- 
lished a provisional government, and de- 
clared the King of Sardinia dictator. 
France could by a word have checked 
this iniquitous course, but she stood si- 
lent. The army in Rome saw the Pope's 
territory torn from him, but made no ef- 
fort to maintain the integrity of his 
States, although Pius IX., in his encycli- 
cal of June 18, 1859, formally called at- 
tention to the fact that, by the express de- 
claration of Napoleon III., the mission of 
the French army of occupation was to up- 
hold the temporal power of the Pope. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



Encouraged by this the Legations, an- 
other portion of the Papal States, revolt- 
ed in March, 1860, and demanded to 
be annexed to the kingdom of Sardinia. 
They were annexed by a royal decree 
issued on the 18th of March. Pius IX. 
excommunicated the authors and accom- 
plices in this sacrilegious act. 

Meanwhile, agents of Sardinia were 
busy in Naples exciting revolt ; the firm 
Ferdinand II. died in May, 1859, and the 
next year an expedition, fitted out in Sar- 
dinia under Garibaldi, landed in Sicily and 
almost without striking a blow, wrested 
that island from Naples. Emboldened by 
success he crossed to the mainland, and 
entered Naples, where he was proclaimed 
dictator. The king, abandoned by his 
subjects and most of his army, retired to 
G-aeta, Here he made a long and gallant 
defense, but after some months abandoned 
it, and sought refuge with Pope Pius 
IX. 



252 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

No sooner was Garibaldi installed in 
Naples than Cavour prepared to profit by 
his act. To unite Naples with the terri- 
tories held by Sardinia, Umbria and the 
Marches were required. Again Sardinian 
envoys, unchecked by France, excited re- 
volt. Pesaro, Montefeltro, Urbino, and 
even Sinigaglia, the birth-place of Pius IX., 
enriched by his liberal ty, put an end to 
the Papal power, and called upon Victor 
Emmanuel. 

The Pope, finding himself unsupported 
by France, had reorganized his army, and 
a small force under General Lamoriciere, 
who had won distinction in Algiers, at- 
tempted to uphold the authority of Pius 
IX. Pious and devoted men from all 
Catholic countries, men of the highest 
rank, came to enroll themselves in the 
army of the Pope. Victor Emmanuel saw 
that under such a General the Papal 
authority would be easily restored. By 
his orders a Sardinian army, ten times as 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 253 

great as that of the Pope, was put in 
motion, and, without declaration of war, 
or any formality, this force, under Gen- 
eral Cialdini, on the 18th of September 
suddenly attacked Lamoriciere at Castel- 
fidardo. The Papal army was prepared 
to prevent civil outbreaks, but not to 
cope with a foreign power. Taken un- 
awares by such an attack in time of 
peace, Lamoriciere met the attack gal- 
lantly. Four times he led his brave 
little army against the strong position of 
the Sardinians, till, cut to pieces by the 
overpowering force of the enemy, he was 
forced at last to give up the unequal con- 
test. He did not draw oi¥, however, till 
the field was stre wn with dead and wound- 
ed, the gallant General Pimodan lifeless 
anions; them. 

Lamoriciere retired with the remnant of 
his force to Ancona. There he was be- 
sieged by sea and land, and for ten days 
held out till his guns were all dismounted, 



254 LITE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

and his ammunition expended. Then he 
surrendered, and his troops, exposed to 
every insult, often massacred on the way, 
were marched beyond the frontiers. The 
Papal territory was at once annexed, and 
Victor Emmanuel, crossing to the territory 
of Naples, met Garibaldi and entering 
Naples with him, on the 26th of Decem- 
ber, declared Naples and Sicily part of 
his kingdom. On the 17th of March, 
1861, he assumed the title of King of 
Italy, and ten days after the so-called 
Italian Parliament proclaimed Rome the 
capital of the new kingdom, thus an- 
nouncing their intention to wrest the 
Eternal City itself from the Pope. Thus 
was the treaty kept which had provided 
that the Pope was to preside over Con- 
federate Italy ! 

One of the great actors in this sacrilege, 
the plotter in the cabinet of Victor Em- 
manuel against religion and its head, 
Count Camillo Cavour, did not live to 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 255 

enjoy his triumph. He was smitten by 
sudden death on the 6th of June. 

Pius IX. had now only the city of 
Rome and its environs, the primitive 
domain of St. Peter. He was utterly 
helpless to maintain his authority. He 
could only express his profound grief 
in his allocutions and briefs, protest 
against the new usurpations, and pro- 
nounce the ecclesiastical penalties against 
the spoliators. He was unawed by their 
violence or power. He spoke with apos- 
tolic freedom. 

In an allocution of September 28, 1860, 
he stigmatized in bold and deserved terms 
the treacherous attack at Castelfidardo, 
and the unworthy non-intervention of 
France. He soon after justified his brave 
but unfortunate army, and struck a medal 
to commemorate the day, a medal bearing 
a cross and the legend " Pro Petri Sede " 
— " For the See of Peter." In March, he 
refuted the arguments of those who urged 



256 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

that the Pope should accept accomplished 
facts, and not oppose the progress of liber- 
alism. He showed that the real object of 
the usurpers was to destroy every princi- 
ple of authority, to destroy every idea of 
right and justice. He showed that the 
accomplished facts were incompatible with 
every principle of equity and justice. 

The position of the Pope excited the 
warmest sympathy among the faithful 
Catholics throughout the world. 

But the sovereign Pontiff had other 
anxieties also. The Maronite Christians of 
Mount Lebanon and Damascus were dis- 
armed by the Pashas and left to the mercy 
of the Druses in June, 1860. Several towns 
were completely destroyed, every male 
slaughtered, the women and girls to the 
number of seven thousand driven off 
as slaves. Pius IX., in a letter of July 
29, expressed to the Patriarch of Antioch, 
and his suffragan bishops, the sorrow that 
filled his heart ; even in his poverty he 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 257 

contributed to the relief of the suffering, 
and excited the faithful to charitable zeal. 

Yet if, in one part of the Turkish em- 
pire, the Church was thus severely tried, 
a triumph awaited it in another. On 
the 30th of December, 1860, many bish- 
ops, priests, and laymen of Bulgaria in a 
body abjured the schism of Photius, and, 
in the name of a majority of the people, 
sent a solemn Act of Union to Rome. 
Pius IX. replied on the 29th of January, 
1861 ; and having appointed Monsignor 
Sokolski their archbishop, consecrated 
him in the Sistine Chapel. The new 
pastor of the Bulgarians, after reciting 
aloud his profession of faith, said to the 
Holy Father : " It is your work, if being 
dead, we are restored to life ; if bein<r 
lost, we have been found again." But 
the pious Pope exclaimed : " These are 
the works of God. To thee, praise, bene- 
diction, eternal thanksgiving, O Jesus 
Christ ! source of mercy, and of all con- 
17 



258 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



solation." The schismatics, alarmed at 
this defection, resorted to violence and 
intrigue; many faltered in their new 
faith; Archbishop Sokolski disappeared, 
and is thought to be a prisoner in Russia; 
even bishops wavered, but the Archbish- 
op of Drama adhered to the faith amid 
every trial. 

The period was peculiarly one when 
bishops of schismatic and heretical com- 
munions nobly renounced all worldly ad- 
vantages to acknowledge the Primacy of 
the Holy See, at the very moment when, 
to mere human eyes, it seemed bereft of 
all power and greatness. Armenian, Chal- 
dean, and Coptic bishops, the Protestant 
bishops of Malta and North Carolina, 
may be numbered among those who, 
like the wise men of old, came from the 
midst of error, to pay homage to our 
Lord, under the guidance of a heavenly 
light. 

Victor Emmanuel had assumed the title 



LIEE OF POPE PIUS IX. 259 

of King of Italy, and Cavour had declared 
that the territory wrested from the Pope 
would be held in defiance of all ; he even 
declared the purpose to make Rome the 
capital. 

Napoleon III. yielded to the revolution. 
He indorsed the act of Victor Emmanuel, 
by regulating the limits of the Pope's re- 
stricted territory, and thus sanctioned the 
policy of Cavour, which, if justifiable in 
regard to the provinces, would be equally 
so in regard to Rome. He acknowledged 
the new kingdom of Italy, and was the 
first continental power to do so. Others 
soon followed the example, and Victor 
Emmanuel, thus sustained, proceeded in 
his war on the Church, suppressing re- 
ligious orders, imprisoning the clergy, dis- 
persing academies and schools. The in- 
dignant protests of the Catholics exasper- 
ated the French Government into open 
hostility; but when Sardinia sent Gari- 
baldi to excite fresh troubles, and secure 



260 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

Home, France was compelled to speak. 
Dreading French intervention, Victor 
Emmanuel ordered Cialdiui to attack 
Garibaldi with the very troops intended 
originally to support him. The adven- 
turer was wounded and captured at As- 
promonte in August, 1862. 

It was thus decided that France would 
permit no more of the Pope's territory to 
be wrested from him. 

The position of Pius IX. was grand. 
Abandoned by men, even by his own 
subjects, who had enjoyed under him 
all the blessings of a good government, 
he appealed to the hearts of the true 
faithful throughout the world. The 
Church rallied around its menaced Head. 
Testimonials of attachment came from 
every clime. Pius IX. invited the bish- 
ops to attend a ceremony of canonization. 
Twenty-six martyrs, one an American by 
birth, had been put to death by the Jap- 
anese at Nagasaki in 1597. The greatest 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 261 

veneration had always been paid to these 
proto-martyrs of Japan, and miracles at- 
tested their influence with God. The 
cause of the Blessed Michael de Sanctis, 
a Trinitarian, a member of the Order 
for the Redemption of Captives, was 
also ready. The call of the Pope could 
not be obeyed in Italy. The govern- 
ment, which kept repeating Cavour's ly- 
ing phrase, " A free Church in a free 
State," prohibited the bishops of Italy 
from attending a canonization at Rome. 
Ninety bishops protested against such 
a mockery of freedom. But the holy 
city beheld bishops gathering from every 
clime. Three hundred and twenty-three 
cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, and bish- 
ops, more than four thousand priests, 
and a hundred thousand Catholic pil- 
grims gathered in Rome. Ships arrived 
at the mouth of Tiber, from France, 
Spain, and Italy, which seemed like 
floating chapels; poor parishes united 



2C2 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



to raise among them funds to enable 
the priest of one parish to reach Rome. 

From the Feast of the Ascension to 
Whitsunday was one prolonged festival. 
On the 6th of June, Pius IX. preached 
himself, in the Sistine Chapel, in Latin 
and French, to an audience of four thou- 
sand priests, all that the building could 
hold. When he had <nven the Pontifical 
blessing, a priest exclaimed, in the words 
of the Litany, " Or emus pro Pontifice nos- 
tra Pio" "Let us pray for our Pontiff, 
Pius." The response rose from all, as 
from one: "The Lord preserve him, and 
give him life, and make him blessed upon 
earth, and deliver him not to the will of 
his enemies." 

The canonization took place on the 8th 
of June, 1862. The great doors of St. 
Peter opened at live o'clock in the morn- 
ing. Thousands spent the night awaiting 
the moment, and scarcely were the portals 
unclosed, when the nave of the mightiest 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 265 

temple of earth was filled. Fine paint- 
ings hung around, representing scenes in 
the lives of the martyrs, and of the illus- 
trious confessor ; thousands of lights il- 
lumined the immense edifice, and added to 
the charm of the scene. At seven, the 
head of the grand procession appeared 
led by the orphans, and students of the 
ecclesiastical seminaries. Behind them 
came the religious and secular clergy. The 
Holy Father appeared preceded by the 
banners of the saints to be canonized, 
bishops, archbishops, patriarchs, and cardi- 
nals. He was borne slowly along on the 
sedia gestatoria, holding alighted taper, all 
kneeling as he passed, while the chanters 
of the Vatican intoned the " Tu es Petrus" 
and as it died away in the distance, another 
group chanted the "Ave Maris /Stella." 

Thus was the Pope borne, amid the 
thousands of faithful from every land 
the sun shines upon, to the high altar be- 
hind the tomb of St. Peter. 



266 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



"When the Holy Father had taken his 
seat upon his throne, and had received the 
obeisance of the cardinals and bishops, 
the consistorial advocate thrice petitioned 
him to permit the names of the glorious 
martyrs and the confessors to be inscribed 
in the catalogue of saints recognized by 
the Church. 

After the third request Pius IX. read, in 
a distinct voice, the decree of canonization, 
and then intoned the Te Deum, which a 
thousand voices caught up. Surrounded 
by all the bishops, the Holy Father thereup- 
on offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 

The sovereign Pontiff had not invited 
the bishops of the world to Rome, simply 
to take part in this imposing ceremony, 
solemn as is the rite by which the Church 
crowns her long and strict process of can- 
onization, the investigation into the life 
and virtues of the holy persons, for whom 
the private devotion of the faithful seeks 
this public recognition. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 267 

Pius IX. has ever sought to perform his 
great acts, with his brethren in the epis- 
copate around him, supporting his arms, 
as it were, like another Moses, while he 
seeks from Heaven for his people victory 
over their enemies. His allocution to 
them June 9th, 1862, begins by casting a 
mournful glance over the principal errors 
of our unhappy century : infidelity, denial 
of the divine origin of the Church, the 
encroachments of the civil power, panthe- 
ism, and rationalism. He then referred to 
the wicked conspiracy, the impious hypo- 
critical efforts by which the godless threat- 
en to annihilate the temporal power of 
the Apostolic See. He thanked the bish- 
ops for their unanimous support of the 
necessity of the temporal power, and ad- 
jured all to continue to combat error, to 
divert their people from touching or pe- 
rusing bad books and papers ; to promote 
the sound education of the clergy, and the 
Christian training of youth. He closed by 



268 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

asking them, in a voice choked by emotion, 
to unite in imploring the Father of Mercies to 
extend a saving hand to Christian and civil 
society, and to restore peace to the Church. 

The reply of the bishops was as mem- 
orable as the allocution. They affirmed 
positively the supreme doctrinal author- 
ity and the infallibility of the Roman 
Pontiff. " You are the master of sound 
doctrine ; you are the center of unity ; 
you are the rock, the very foundation of 
the Church, against which the gates of 
hell shall not prevail. When you speak, 
we hear the voice of Peter; when you de- 
cree, it is Jesus Christ whom we obey!" 
They recognized as distinctly the necessity 
of the temporal. "The sovereign Pontiff 
must be the subject, the guest even, of no 
prince." "We condemn the errors that 
you have condemned ; we reprove the 
sacrileges, the violations of ecclesiastical 
immunity, and the other- crimes against 
the See of Peter." 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 269 

This address, read by Cardinal Mattei, 
was signed by all the bishops present in 
Koine. The bishops throughout Italy, who 
had been forbidden by government to at- 
tend it, all signed it at once, with a single 
exception. The Catholic world applauded 
the act of the bishops. 

The moral effect of this manifestation 
was immense. The Catholic world joined 
with the faithful of Rome to affirm the 
rights of the Holy See, and the right of 
the Romans to claim the city as the capi- 
tal of Catholic Christendom. 

That the anti-Catholic government at 
Turin grew frenzied at all this only 
shows the great moral force of the mani- 
festation. Such was the famous period of 
the canonization of the Japanese mar- 
tyrs. 

The ceremony of canonization is one of 
great pomp and publicity. In a less sol- 
emn form, Pius IX. had already, since his 
elevation to the See of Peter, beatified 



270 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

several servants of God, that is, permitted 
their public veneration in certain orders, 
or places, until such time as the Holy See, 
on further proof of miracles wrought by 
their intercession, should proceed to their 
canonization. 

Thus in 1850, he beatified Peter Claver 
of the Society of Jesus, the Apostle of 
Carthagena in South America, and espe- 
cially of the negro slaves; and also the 
Blessed Mariana de Paredes, known also 
as the Lily of Quito ; in 1852 he beatified 
John de Britto, a martyr in India, John 
Grande, and the illustrious Paul of the 
Cross, the founder of the zealous and 
austere Order of Passionists ; in 1853 he 
beatified the Holy French Shepherdess, 
Germaine Cousin, and the Jesuit Father 
Andrew Bobola, martyred by the Cos- 
sacks, and in 1861 John Leonardi. 

Thus the holy persons, who were by 
his decision presented to the faithful as 
models and protectors, represented both 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 273 

sexes, and all lands from America to 
Japan— the tender virgin, the laborious 
missionary, the heroes of Christian charity, 
and the devoted martyr. 



CHAPTER X. 

The Polish Persecution.— Efforts of Pope 
Pius IX. — The Convention of September 
15, 1864. — The Encyclical Quanta Cura 
and the Syllabus. — Prussia's Progress 
in Germany.— France Evacuates Eome. — 
The Centenary of St. Peter. — Canoni- 
zation of the Martyrs of Gorcum. — Ga- 
ribaldi renews his Attempts on Eome. — 
Bad Faith of the Sardinians. — The 
French return. — Mentana and the De- 
feat of Garibaldi. 

The Catholics in Poland had been for 
years the object of a fearful persecution 
at the hands of the Russian Government. 
The priests in many parts were swept 
away by its order, and hurried off to 
Siberia; the people compelled to choose 



274 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

between apostasy and the same fate ; 
every bishop in Poland was driven from 
his see; some to perish while hurried along 
by Cossack hordes. Every effort of the 
unfortunate Poles to escape from the 
horrible tyranny that has for a century 
crushed them down was visited on the 
Catholic clergy. The united Greeks, a 
body which had always clung to the 
See of Peter, had especially been the 
constant objects of Russian persecution; 
their sufferings never abated. 

No eloquence could exaggerate the suf- 
ferings of these devoted Catholics, or the 
fearful cruelty of their persecutors. The 
Eussian Government has persistently de- 
nied the facts, hoping to crush the truth 
amid the horrors of Siberia, from which 
few of the victims ever return. But 
truth is powerful and will prevail. Those 
who might think the Catholic accounts 
exaggerated, are chilled with horror when 
they read the plain, unvarnished accounts 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



275 



given in detail, in a British Blue Book, as 
the official reports in Parliament are called. 

The cry of m these suffering children 
reached day by day the ears of the Holy 
Father. He appealed, but appealed in 
vain, to the Bussian Emperor. At length 
on the 26th of April, 1864, he exclaim- 
ed: "The blood of the weak and in- 
nocent cries for vengeance, before the 
throne of the Eternal, on those who 
shed it ! Poor Poland ! I intended not 
to speak till the next consistory, but I 
fear by longer silence to draw down the 
wrath of Heaven upon me, the chastise- 
ment denounced by the prophets, on those 
who allow iniquity. I feel inspired to 
condemn that sovereign whom I name 
not. That potentate, who falsely styles 
himself Eastern Catholic, and who is only 
a schismatic, cast out of the bosom of the 
true Church, that potentate persecutes 
and kills his Catholic subjects, and by 
his ferocious cruelty has driven them to 



276 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



insurrection. Under pretense of suppress- 
ing this insurrection, he extirpates Cath- 
olicity ; he transports whole communities 
to frozen districts, where they are de- 
prived of all religious succor ; he replaces 
them by schismatic adventurers. He tears 
priests from their flocks, exiles them, con- 
demns them to hard labor, or other de- 
grading punishments. Happy those who 
could escape and now wander in foreign 
lands. This potentate, heterodox and 
schismatic as he is, has arrogated to him- 
self a power which not even the Vicar of 
Jesus Christ possesses ; he pretends to de- 
pose a Catholic bishop lawfully instituted 
by us. Madman ! he knows not that a 
Catholic bishop, in his see or in the cata- 
combs, is always one, and that his character 
is indelible." Pius IX. called upon all to 
pray for the persecuted Poles. 

When in December, 1866, the Russian 
envoy, at an audience, not only denied the 
persecution, but charged that Catholicity 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 277 

and revolution were identical, Pius IX. 
dismissed him, and broke off all inter- 
course with a government which set truth 
at defiance. 

In 1867 Alexander II. declared the 
Catholic diocese of Kaminieck abolished ; 
the Pope could employ only the news- 
papers to inform the Catholics deprived 
of their bishop that the bishop of Zito- 
mir was appointed administrator. 

Look at the map of Siberia, find if you 
can the village of Tounka on the Irkout, 
in its deep, pestilential valley'. Yet, in 
1868, in this spot alone a hundred and fifty 
Polish priests were still alive, survivors 
of hundreds sent there, saying mass by 
stealth, forbidden to appeal to officer or 
emperor, deprived of every comfort, and 
yet from the Ural Mountains to Kam- 
schatka there were hundreds of similar 
spots reeking with the blood of exiled 
Catholic priests. 

Meanwhile, the conspiracy against the 



278 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



independence of the Holy See progressed. 
Step by step Napoleon III. yielded to the 
demand of Sardinia. On the 15th of 
September, 1864, he concluded a conven- 
tion with Victor Emmanuel in regard to 
the Pope ; but the sovereign whose fate 
was thus decided was not even represent- 
ed in the proceedings. Victor Emmanuel 
bound himself by oath not to attack the 
territory still in possession of the Holy 
See, and to assume the part of the Pon- 
tifical debt corresponding to the portion 
he had wrested from the Holy See. 
France then agreed to withdraw its 
army within two years. Napoleon III. thus 
promised to leave Pius IX. to his fate. 

The Pope could not but foresee the re- 
sult thus shadowed forth, and he seems 
prophetically to have seen its consumma- 
tion associated with the saddest days that 
France had known, for when the conven- 
tion was made known to Pius IX., his 
only remark was, " I pity France ! " 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 279 

But with the shadow of a great wrong 
thus announcing its coming, Pius IX. was 
still the great Pope. On the 8th of De- 
cember, 1864, he published the Encyclical 
Quanta Cura condemning a host of 'erro- 
neous doctrines which he had from time 
to time censured,. and of which a summary, 
or syllabus, was appended. There was 
nothing new to Catholics in this; but 
| when modern liberalism and infidelity 
were confronted by this mass of sound 
Catholic doctrine, which struck at some 
favorite crude theory of the time, all rose 
in arms. The Pope whose declining power 
made him but yesterday one of whom they 
spoke with a kind of pity, became sud- 
denly the great enemy of human progress, 
a man of boundless power and influence. 
The Encyclical and Syllabus have ever 
since been an inexhaustible topic ; gener- 
ally misunderstood and misrepresented, 
few stopping to think that it is one thing 
to condemn a general proposition as false, 



280 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

and another tiling to set forth which is 
the true doctrine ; and that this is a series 
of condemnations of errors propagated 
among Catholics, which it was the duty of 
the Pope to condemn. 

The first articles of the Syllabus, or 
summary of the principal errors of our 
time condemned in the Consistorial Al- 
locutions, Encyclicals, and other Letters 
Apostolic of our Holy Father Pope Pius 
IX., refer to pantheism, naturalism, and 
absolute rationalism. The next to mod- 
erate rationalism, which claimed too much 
for human reason, or excluded revelation. 
Then the prevailing indifferentism and 
latitudinarian ideas of the day are con- 
demned, which seek to make men believe 
that the existence of the true Church and 
adherence to it are unnecessary for salva- 
tion. The condemnation of socialism, com- 
munism, secret societies, the Bible, socie- 
ties, clerico-liberal societies is formally 
renewed. The next topic is a series of 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



281 



errors concerning the Church and its 
rights. The Syllabus in fact lays down 
that the Church is a true and perfect 
society, absolutely free, enjoying her own 
peculiar and constant rights, conferred 
upon her by her divine founder, and that 
it is not competent for the civil powers to 
define what the rights of the Church are, 
or the limits in which they shall be exer- 
cised. It lays down, moreover, that the 
Church in the exercise of its authority 
does not depend on the permission or con- 
sent of the civil government, and the 
episcopal power includes no part depend- 
ent on the State. The Pope in these de- 
cisions claimed that the Church had the 
powers to define what was the true re- 
ligion ; to restrict Catholic writers even 
in treating questions not absolutely de- 
fined as articles of faith ; to employ force, 
to acquire and possess. The direct and 
indirect temporal power of the Church 
was affirmed, and the charge that the 



282 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

popes had usurped the rights of princes, 
or erred in defining faith or morals, was 
absolutely denied. From the principles 
thus laid down others flowed: the right of 

CD 

the Church in certain temporal affairs, as 
for instance in regard to marriage and 
the education of children, the right of the 
Pope to institute bishops without the con- 
sent of the State, and the right of the 
bishops to exercise jurisdiction independ- 
ent of any such sanction, as well as to 
direct the ecclesiastical education of stu- 
dents for the priesthood. The idea of 
national churches, not subject to the Holy 
See, but guided by State authority, is 
condemned as utterly at variance with the 
very idea of the Church. 

The assunrption that the State had no 
limit to its power was denied by the 
Pope as distinctly as it was by American 
statesmen, who appealed to a higher law 
of right and wrong than the acts of leg- 
islatures, which can morally bind only 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



283 



when they do not contravene the laws of 
God, and are exercised within the limits 
essentially belonging to them. All State 
action attempting to define the duties of 
the Church in the teaching of faith, the 
administration of the sacraments, or the 
direction of conscience is a usurpation. 
The right of the State to regulate the 
education of Christian youth, to the 
exclusion of the Church, and still 
more the education of candidates for 
the priesthood, is explicitly denied. So 
many and strange were the false doc- 
trines set afloat, that the Pope felt it 
necessary to condemn the proposition 
that kings and princes are exempt from 
the jurisdiction of the Church. The pro- 
position that the absolute separation of 
Church and State was the only proper 
course was condemned. A number of 
errors on natural and Christian morals 
were next censured. The Pope main- 
tained that human laws should conform to 



284 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

the law of God, and that they receive their 
power from God, and that the decision 
in regard to their conformity lies with the 
Church. Materialism, with the doctrine 
that places all man's happiness in material 
success, was held to be subversive of all 
sound principle ; as was the theory that 
successful injustice becomes just as an 
accomplished fact. 

The exaggerated idea of patriotism 
that would make it justify any crime 
committed under its impulse found no 
favor with the Church. A host of 
errors as to Christian marriage were 
condemned, and this all the more ne- 
cessarily, as the action of many States 
sought to separate the contract of mar- 
riage from the sacrament, to exclude the 
Church from conferring that sacrament, 
or establishing the dispositions necessary 
for its due and valid reception. 

The Pope denied dogmatically by these 
decisions that the compatibility of the 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 285 

temporal royalty of the Pope with, the 
spiritual power was an open question 
among Catholics, or that it would con- 
duce to the happiness and liberty of 
the Pope to deprive him of temporal 
power. 

In regard to States which had always 
been deemed Catholic, the theory had 
been zealously propagated that it was no 
longer right to hold the Catholic Church 
as alone established; that all religions 
ought to be allowed full scope. This as a 
general principle universal in application 
was condemned. 

The Syllabus closes with a reprobation 
of the proposition that the Roman Pontiff 
ought to adapt his policy and the Church 
to what is styled progress, liberalism, and 
modern civilization. 

Such is the famous Syllabus. Few 
thoughtful men can read it and declare 
that they would maintain the contradictory 
propositions as sound principles of action. 



286 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

It put in a distinct form, however, many 
Catholic doctrines, and removed doubts; 
but it excited by that very fact a host of 
opponents. All who wished to exalt the 
royal power, all who w T ished to make the 
Church the creature and slave of the State, 
all who wished to withdraw marriage and 
the education of the young from the in- 
fluence of the religion of Jesus Christ, ar- 
rayed themselves against the Syllabus. 

Napoleon III. forbade the publication 
of the Encyclical and Syllabus, and hav- 
ing thus put an end to the liberty of the 
press, in the name of liberty punished 
some of the bishops for reading it from 
their pulpits. 

That Pius IX. in the Syllabus con- 
demned the true liberty of the press, or 
maintained that Catholic States should 
prevent non-Catholic subjects from wor- 
shiping God according to the dictates of 
their conscience under all circumstances, 
was refuted by his own conduct in the 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 287 

government of his States. A line "between 
true liberty and license was drawn by the 
Papal Government, and a similar distinc- 
tion is found in many of the constitutions 
of the American States. 

Napoleon, in thus striking at the princi- 
ples of the Syllabus, no more acted for the 
best interests of France than he did in 
planning with Bismarck the further hu- 
miliation of Austria. The revolutionary 
party applauded both acts as steps in the 
great work of destroying Catholic influ- 
ence in the world. Sadowa demolished 
the power of Austria, the last fragment of 
the old German empire, and that humbled 
empire yielded up Venice, which, ceded to 
France for form's sake, was at once trans- 
ferred to the King of Sardinia, who then 
transferred to France the cradle of his 
house, Savoy. Prussia, eager to build up 
a great ant i- Catholic power, and to reduce 
her Catholic population to a helpless mi- 
nority, absorbed Hanover and nearly all 



288 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

the other smaller Protestant States in 
northern Germany. Thus did French in- 
fluence under Napoleon III. complete the 
establishment of a great Protestant power 
in Germany which it began under Richelieu. 

Pius IX. amid these wars and rumors of 
wars looked beyond the strife of Euro- 
pean courts to his world-diffused flock. 
It was an age of martyrs. The empire 
of Anam, Tonquin, China, Borneo smoked 
with the blood of Christians; but his heart 
was gladdened by better hopes, for the 
Church in Ecuador, under Garcia Moreno, 
and in Hayti, and in Japan gave promise 
of rich harvests of good; though the 
King of Sardinia, Mexico, and New Gra- 
nada continued the war on the Church. 

The public acts of the Pope during this 
period were many and important. An 
encyclical to the Belgian bishops settled a 
long dispute; another to the prince bishop 
of Breslau led to the submission of the dis- 
ciples of Gunther ; an encyclical to the bish- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



289 



op of Fribourg defined various points as 
to popular education ; and the Pope wrote 
to the Archbishop of Munich condemn- 
ing the errors of the school of Dollinger, 
which finally resulted in a schism. 

He continued his great work, organizing 
new vicariates in mission lands, erecting 
sees where the progress of the faith justi- 
fied it. He convoked a Plenary Council at 
Baltimore in 1868, and at its suggestion 
erected Episcopal sees at Columbus, Grass 
Valley, Green Bay, Harrisburg, La Crosse, 
Rochester, Scranton, St. Joseph, and Wil-. 
minscton. 

One day in the year 1866, it was the 
6th of February, the Pope was laying the 
corner-stone of a new church in Pome. 
It was a church that typified the times; 
it was to rise beside the English college 
dedicated to God under the invocation of 
St. Thomas of Canterbury, who contended, 
even to the sacrifice of his life, for the 
liberty of the Church against the unjust 



290 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

usurpations of the civil power. Alluding 
to the Catholics who so rapidly increased 
in England, Pius IX. exclaimed : " The 
principal Church in England, abandoned 
by her own children, and unable to bear 
others, for she is exhausted and barren, 
asks who are these Christians whom she 
has not brought forth ? They are born of 
the true spouse, of her who has clung to 
the Bridegroom, of the oldest which is at 
the same time the youngest Church, the 
only one that is eternally fruitful. 

" Hail Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman 
Church, whose unworthy Vicar and Head I 
am ! I rejoice to see thy sons spread over 
the face of the earth, in spite of hostile 
powers ! O Holy Church, may those 
who know thee not flock beneath thy 
shadow ! " 

Freemasonry, as the chief secret society 
of the world, and the type of all others, 
had been constantly condemned by the 
Holy See. In the Consistory of Septem- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



291 



ber 25, 1865, Pius IX. condemned it in the 
most explicit terms, to remove all doubts 
and call back any Catholics who in good 
faith had been allured within those socie- 
ties. The gentlemen who boast of being 
always on the square resorted to a strange 
argument. To counteract the teaching of 
the Pope they pretended that he had him- 
self been a mason. The story started in 
Germany, and they thought that by put- 
ting the scene in America they would 
escape detection. They declared posi- 
tively that Pius IX. had been received 
into a masonic lodge in Philadelphia, 
cited his discourses, and declared that a 
number of his autographs were preserved 
in the lodge. Unfortunately for the story 
Philadelphia is in the civilized world. 
People there could read and write. They 
examined and found that there was no ma- 
sonic lodge in that city of the name given; 
they found that no lodge in Philadelphia 
had ever received John Mary Mastai ; 



292 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

they could find no trace of his ever hav- 
ing been there, as in fact he never was ; 
that no lodge had any of his autograph 
letters ; masons themselves attested that 
the whole was a pure invention. The 
slander thus refuted has been revived 
from time to time, but in later versions 
care is taken not to specify the lodge or 
city too distinctly. 

Pius IX. has never been within the 
United States, but he has shown in many 
ways his attachment to our country, and 
his admiration of our institutions under 
which real religious freedom is enjoyed. 
The poor negro slave was in his eyes as 
worthy of his kindly attention as the 
most exalted. Hearing that a slave be- 
longing to a Louisiana family desired to 
receive his blessing, he sent her a special 
letter of audience, and when she entered 
said : " Daughter, many persons of rank 
are waiting there, but I chose to see you 
first. You are little and mean in the eyes 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 293 

of the world ; it depends on yourself to be 
very great in the eyes of God." After 
conversing with her for some time, he 
asked her whether she had much to hear. 
"Of course I have," she replied, "but 
since I have been confirmed, I have 
learned to accept all as the will of 
God." He exhorted her to persevere 
in this love of God, and blessed her, 
and with her, all her fellow-slaves. 

Pius IX. showed constantly this love 
and condescension for the poor, not only 
in audiences, but in his visits to hospitals, 
and other charitable institutions, and in 
his excursions in the neighborhood of 
Rome. He could by a witty remark re- 
buke the pretensions of the great ; but for 
the good hearts of his poor, however 
much their ideas or address might vary 
from the etiquette of the court, he had 
every indulgence. 

The Prussian Minister von Arnim in 
1867 drove up to the Vatican in a vehicle 



294 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

with but one horse. As this was against 
etiquette the guards on duty prevented 
his app roach. Bismarck, when this was 
reported to Berlin, ordered von Arnim to 
lower the Prussian arms and leave Rome 
if he was not permitted to drive up with 
a single horse to the Pope's palace. Pius 
IX., however, learning the difficulty, ad- 
dressed a note to von Arnim through 
Cardinal Antonelli, intimating that his 
Holiness, taking compassion on the diffi- 
culties of the Diplomatic Corps, hereaf- 
ter authorized the representatives of the 
great powers to drive up with one ani- 
mal of any kind. Heartily ashamed of 
the part he had played, von Arnim never 
showed the letter to his fellow diploma- 
tists at Rome. 

The year 1867 was a glorious one for 
Rome, the eighteenth centenary of the 
death of St. Peter, the first of the Popes. 
The day of St. Peter and St. Paul was to 
witness a grand spectacle. Though Paris 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



295 



was inviting all to her great Exposition, 
Koine drew together five hundred bishops, 
twenty thousand priests, and nearly half 
a million pilgrims of the laity, coming 
from all lands to honor, with hearts full 
of love and emotion, a line which could 
thus celebrate a succession of more than 
eighteen centuries. 

From every land came rich offerings to 
the Holy Father, who distributed them 
lavishly in supporting the poorer bish- 
ops, or extending the missions in distant 
countries. The concourse of bishops, and 
priests gave new lustre to all the festivals 
of the month. The procession on Corpus 
Christi, which fell on the 20th of June, 
was a prelude to the centenary. Half the 
whole body of bishops surrounded the 
Pope as he held the Blessed Sacrament in 
his hands, amid an assemblage such as has 
rarely been gathered together on earth, 
yet all so overcome by holy awe, that 
amid the universal silence no sound was 



296 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



heard but the falling of the water in the 
fountains without. 

The next clay was devoted to the com- 
memoration of the twenty-first anniver- 
sary of the coronation of Pius IX. On 
the 23d the church of St. Mary of the 
Angels, at the baths of Diocletian, which 
the Pope had completely restored, was 
consecrated. The following day he offi- 
ciated at St. John Lateran, and on issuing 
from that venerable pile gave his blessing 
to the immense multitude who filled the 
whole square. 

On the 25th Pius IX. gave the hat to 
the Cardinal Archbishop of Seville, and 
made an announcement to the assembled 
bishops which was unexpected at that 
grave crisis, when Rome was menaced by 
the open hostility of the bands of Gari- 
baldi, and the secret machinations of the 
Sardinians. But the courage and confi- 
dence of Pius IX. did not falter. He an- 
nounced the speedy convocation of an 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 297 

(Ecumenical Council. The joy at this 
tidings was manifested by applause, and 
as it spread it tilled the Catholic world 
with holy joy and interest. 

The day of the Centenary of St. Peter, 
June 29th, 1867, Pius IX. celebrated High 
Mass in the great church dedicated to the 
Prince of the Apostles, and reared above his 
tomb. Eighteen centuries before, Nero, as 
the arch-enemy of the Catholic Church, 
thought to crush it by crucifying the 
head, the Vicar of the Crucified; but 
after all the vicissitudes of those long 
ages, the Church was still full of life, 
energy, though still pursued by enemies as 
bitter and unrelenting, and- as blindly 
confident in their power to destroy 
her. 

Pius IX. asked the Catholic world to 
begin the day of this glorious anniversary 
by supplication and prayers of thanks- 
givings. Then he proceeded to the sol- 
emn canonization. . The Christian heroes 



298 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

who were thus placed on the altars of 
Christendom were the martyrs of Gor- 
cum in Holland, nineteen holy religious 
put to death for the faith, in the mad at- 
tack on the Church in the sixteenth cen- 
tury ; St. Peter de Arbues, assassinated in 
hatred of the faith at Saragossa ; St. Jo- 
seph at Kuncievicz, a Polish bishop who 
fell a victim to Russian fanaticism ; and 
besides these martyrs two holy confessors, 
St. Paul of the Cross, the founder of 
the austere and laborious congregation 
of missionaries, the Passionists, and the 
Franciscan St. Leonard of Porto Mau- 
rizio, who as a missionary had traversed 
Italy reviving faith and piety. Two holy 
virgins, the French shepherdess St. Ger- 
maine Cousin, and St. Mary Francis of the 
Five Wounds, closed the list of those 
canonized in 1867. 

The Centenary of St. Peter with its 
sacred festivals closed, so to say, on the 
7th of July, when the Holy Father beati- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



299 



fied two hundred and five Japanese mar- 
tyrs, Catholic missionaries who had suf- 
fered for the faith during the terrible 
persecutions in that empire, some of them 
zealous men whom America can claim as 
their birth-place, or the scene of their 
previous labors. 

Rome at the moment of this great so- 
lemnity was truly Rome of the Popes. 
The Emperor of France, according to his 
convention with Victor Emmanuel, had 
withdrawn his troops from Rome in De- 
cember, 1866. Pius IX. maintained order 
in his States unsupported, and having but 
a small army under General Kanzler, made 
up in part by volunteers from various 
countries, chiefly men of rank and educa- 
tion, as well as of devotion and cour- 
age. 

Yet Garibaldi and the revolution were 
at work. Victor Emmanuel pretended to 
exercise every diligence to prevent any at- 
tack on the Roman States; but an army 



300 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

was assembled and officered by Garibaldi, 
and transported openly by railroad. 

In October bands invaded the Papal 
States on all sides; the city of Rome was 
full of their secret agents, who, under 
Monti and Tognetti, blew up the Serris- 
tori barracks, until then occupied by Pa- 
pal Zouaves ; all but twenty-seven, chiefly 
musicians, had been removed, but these 
perished in the ruins. 

Sharp skirmishes took place all along 
the frontier at Monte Libretti, Nerola, 
Monte Rotondo ; and an army under Cial- 
dini was advancing, which did nothing to 
check Garibaldi, and was evidently in- 
tended to support him. General Kanzler 
resolved to act decisively and attack Gari- 
baldi's main position. That adventurer 
lay at Mentana with ten or twelve thou- 
sand men in wooded hills. Kanzler moved 
upon him with a force of only three thou- 
sand men, November 3, 1867. France, 
roused at last by the invasion of the 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 301 

Papal territory, and the utter violation of 
the convention on the part of Victor Em- 
manuel, had once more sent troops to aid 
the Pope. General Failly landed at Civita 
Vecchia, October 29th, and two thousand 
of his force followed Kanzler. A head- 
long charge of the Papal troops under 
Colonel Oharette forced the Garibaldians 
from hill to hill, till they made a stand at 
the Vigna Santucci. Even the presence 
of Garibaldi in a strong position could 
not arrest their flight. They rallied at 
last in the walls of Mentana ; its strength 
for a time gave them breathing space ; but 
a part of the French under Polhes ap- 
peared, and the Papal Zouaves having 
turned their flank, the whole force dis- 
banded by night, having lost fully a thou- 
sand men, while the loss in the Papal 
troops was slight, and on the part of the 
French but two killed. 

Rome was saved for the time. The 
wounded Garibaldians were cared for 



302 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



with all kindness, and, the danger past, 
Pius IX. again granted an amnesty to 
all who had been in complicity with the 
unscrupulous invaders. The crime of 
Monti and Tognetti was of too black a 
dye to be treated as an act of war. They 
were tried, condemned, and executed ; Vic- 
tor Emmanuel and his Chambers protested, 
conscious perhaps, that the men had acted 
by their orders; but they would certainly 
punish in the same way any who should 
blow up a barrack in Koine in 1877. 



CHAPTER XL 

The Golden" Jubilee of Pius IX. — The Bull 
2ETEBNI Patris Convoking the General 
Council. — The Council of the Vatican. 

The victory at Mentana and the inoccu- 
pation of Home by the French, checked 
for a season the open violence of the revo- 
lutionists. Ccitholics throughout the world 
felt that it was a time for more than a 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX, 



303 



merely moral support, and the little army 
of the Pope was swelled by noble volun- 
teers from all lands. Hungary, Galicia, 
France, Belgium, Catholic Germany, and 
even Canada sent their contingents and 
maintained them at Rome. 

Pius IX. was thus in peace to pursue 
his work for the benefit of his people and 
of his world-wide flock. An agricultural 
school for poor boys, the Vigna Pia, was 
established near Rome and supported 
from his privy purse. There zealous 
Brothers of Mercy formed forsaken boys 
-to become supports of the State, intelli- 
gent, industrious tillers of the soil. 

As the year 1869 approached, the faith- 
ful, now familiar with the life and inter- 
ested in all that concerned their beloved 
Pontiff, saw that he would, if God spared 
his life, soon celebrate the fiftieth anni- 
versary of his elevation to the priesthood. 
It was a general desire that the Golden 
Jubilee should not be passed unnoticed. 



304 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



Dioceses in all lands prepared to send 
delegations to felicitate the Pope on the 
auspicious event and express the joy of 
the Catholic world. Carried away by the 
general movement, all the sovereigns of 
Europe addressed autograph letters to 
Pius IX. bearing their congratulations, 
accompanied by rich gifts. One sovereign 
only stood aloof; felicitations and pres- 
ents from him would indeed have been a 
mockery. While every part of Italy sent 
its words of devotion, the man who ar- 
rogated to himself the title of King of 
the Peninsula was mute. 

The Forty Hours Devotion at the 
church of St. John Lateran, closed by the 
Pope in person surrounded by the Sacred 
College, ushered in the long-expected day. 
Rome was overflowing with pilgrims, and 
as Pius IX. passed through the densely 
crowded streets he was hailed with heart- 
felt greetings from his people and his chil- 
dren from afar. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 305 

It would have been his own choice to 
offer his anniversary mass in the humble 
church near the Tata Giovanni, where he 
had for the first time fulfilled that exalted 
ministry; but St. Peter's claimed him, and 
even that mightiest of temples was too 
small for so grand a celebration. At 
eight o'clock, he celebrated a low mass at 
the high altar, beneath the bronzed cano- 
py and the vast dome. Hundreds of the 
faithful who had sought with zeal the 
consoling privilege, then received holy com- 
munion at his hands. When the mass 
was ended Pius IX. gave his Apostolic 
Benediction, and in his clear voice in- 
toned the Te Deum. It was taken up by 
all within the sanctuary, but soon the 
mighty host joined in, and the noble 
hymn swelled and rolled like the voice 
of thunders beneath the dome and arches. 

In the evening of his Golden Jubilee, 
Pius IX. received at St. Peter's two thou- 
sand representatives of all countries of 
20 



306 life or pope pitjs lx. 

the world, the first felicitation being 
offered by Prince Charles von Loe wen- 
stein as the orator of the Germans, de- 
livering an address signed by more than a 
million of Catholics, and • accompanied by 
the richest offerings. Pius IX., deeply 
affected, replied in words of gratitude 
and joy to these expressions of attach- 
ment ; but when they followed one after 
another he exclaimed, " My God, spare 
me, this is over-much happiness ! I fear 
that soon when I shall appear before thy 
justice, thou wilt say, ' Thou hast re- 
ceived thy reward on earth.' No ! not to 
me, but to thee, O my God, to thee alone, 
be the love of Christians." 

The numerous presents and addresses 
were arranged artistically in the chambers 
of the Vatican, and the Pope, as he passed, 
regarding them, exclaimed, " I have my 
Universal Exposition too; not the pro- 
duct of my industry, but of the love of 
my children ; " and pointing to the ad- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



307 



dresses of devotedness, he added, " There 
is the real expression of Universal Catholic 
Suffrage." 

Rome had seldom enjoyed a day of 
such pure exultation as the Golden Jubi- 
lee of Pius IX. 

The next day he made himself little 
with his little ones, by visiting his be- 
loved spot, the Tata Giovanni, gratifying 
his own piety and the devotion of the 
forsaken ones whom it shelters. 

Pius IX. signalized the day as king by 
granting an amnesty; as Pope by grant- 
ing an indulgence in form of Jubilee for 
all who prayed for the Pope's intention, 
till he had carried it into effect by con- 
voking a General Council. 

The necessity of this important step, as 
a remedy to the growing evils of the 
times, which struck at all religion, all 
ministry of the Word, and mysteries of 
God, at all political, social and family ties, 
had occupied the mind of the Pope from 



308 LIFE OF POPE PIU£ IX. 



the period of his seclusion at Gaeta. On 
his return he appointed a commission of 
fourteen cardinals to consider the question 
in all its bearings; each, with a learned 
theologian, bein^ directed to elaborate a 
programme for the Council. "Then," said 
he, " we must pray, we must pray fervently, 
we must pray perse veringly that the Holy 
Ghost may enlighten us." 

When the result of their deliberations 
and prayers was submitted to the Holy 
Father, he decided that the times called 
for the immediate convocation of the 
Council. This he announced informally 
to some of the bishops assembled at the 
Centenary of St. Peter. On the next 
anniversary of the feast of that Holy 
Apostle, he had issued the Bull JEJkr- 
ni Patris. In this srreat document he 
convoked a General Council to be held in 
the illustrious city of Rome, and in the 
Vatican basilica on the 8th of December, 
1869, the Feast of the Immaculate Con- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



309 



ception of the Blessed Virgin. He fur- 
ther declared it his will and ordinance 
that his venerable brethren the patriarchs, 
archbishops, and bishops entitled to sit 
and deliberate in General Councils should 
attend, unless retained by some impedi- 
ment, which they were to report to the 
body in session. 

" We hope that God, who holds the 
hearts of men in his hand, will listen 
favorably to our desires, and will grant, 
in his unspeakable mercy, that, acknowi- 
edging more and more the great blessings 
that flow abundantly from the Catholic 
Church on human society, and that this 
Church is the most solid foundation of 
empires and kingdoms, the sovereigns and 
heads of all nations, especially the Cath- 
olic princes, will not only not prevent our 
venerable brethren already mentioned ; 
but will also be pleased to favor, aid, and 
assist them, with the greatest zeal, in 
all that can contribute to the greatest 



310 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



glory of Grod, and the good of the Coun- 
cil." 

The State in modern times had so com- 
pletely severed its interests from those of 
the Church, that the Pope after full de- 
liberation concluded not to invite any 
monarch to send representatives to the 
Council. Some, indeed, possessed with 
that constant desire of intermeddling in 
the affairs of the Church, wished to protest; 
but no sovereign, except the Emperor of 
Russia, prevented the Catholic bishops in 
his States from freely attending the Coun- 
cil of the Vatican. 

It was to be an (Ecumenical Council. A 
great body of Greeks, Syrians, Armenians, 
Copts, and other Orientals, whose hier- 
archy was of apostolic origin, who had 
retained the holy sacrifice of the mass, the 
seven sacraments, and most of the doc- 
trines of the Church, had been for cen- 
turies cut off from unity and the See of 
Peter, by schisms fomented in ages past 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 311 

by ambitious princes and bishops. To 
meet the errors of the time these churches 
would gain new strength by union. Pius 
IX., on the 8th of September, addressed 
these Eastern bishops : " We conjure and 
beseech you, with all the ardor we can 
infuse into our words, to come to the 
General Assembly of the bishops of the 
West and of the whole world, as your 
fathers did to the Second Council of 
Lyons and the Council of Florence, that, 
renewing the laws of ancient charity and 
restoring to vigor the peace of former 
ages, of the fruit whereof time has de- 
prived us, we may, after a too long period 
of division, behold the pure and bright day- 
dawn of that union arise which we desire." 

Many of the Oriental bishops desired to 
attend, but the schismatic patriarch of 
Constantinople refused even to receive 
the letter; and though the Armenian 
patriarch promised to repair to the Coun- 
cil, he never appeared. The Oriental non- 



312 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



united churches, under the sway of Kus- 
sian and Mohammedan, rejected or neg- 
lected the call. 

The various Protestant denominations, 
which, with every variety of creed and 
worship, had arisen among those who 
in the sixteenth century abandoned the 
Latin Church, were further removed from 
the doctrine, worship, and discipline of 
the Church. They had thrown aside the 
apostolic succession, had no legitimate 
bishops who could be invited, they had 
no altar, no priesthood, no sacraments. 
But as many great and sincere men had 
come from those communities to find peace 
and consolation in the Catholic Church, 
and labor for its progress, Pius IX. ad- 
dressed them also to induce them to ex- 
amine seriously whether they were in the 
truth, and in the way of salvation. The 
invitation was not altogether unheeded. 
Though many treated the appeal with lit- 
tle respect, others in a spirit of calm- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 313 

ness replied, endeavoring to justify, by 
such arguments as they could adduce, the 
original separation from the Church and 
their actual belief. Some, like the notori- 
ous Dr. Cumming, wished to be allowed 
to attend the Council and present argu- 
ments in favor of the Protestant doc- 
trines, but the answer was one that could 
come only from an infallible Church. 
Questions that had been decided were 
not to be discussed. In the Catholic 
Church once a point of doctrine is raised 
and decided, it is decided forever. It is 
not a Church blown about by every wind 
of doctrine, accepting one system to-day, 
and another to-morrow. But the Pope 
offered to assign commissions of theolo- 
gians who would receive any delegations 
from Protestant bodies, and consider their 
claims and objections. 

The world was soon agitated by ques- 
tions as to the Council. Governments 
hostile before, made it a pretext for fresh 



314 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

injustice, others weakly yielded. Austria 
nullified the Concordat of 1855 ; Spain, 
undergoing a new revolution, attempted 
to delude an oppressed people by new 
vexations of the Church. Russia contin- 
ued her course of persecution, and in Po- 
land especially the Catholics were in a 
position of the greatest suffering. In 
Italy the policy of violence and dissimu- 
lation still prevailed. All these evils 
formed the subject of an allocution of 
the Pope, on the 21st of June, 1869. 

A private affliction befell him about the 
same time. In 1858 he had lost his bro- 
ther Joseph, and now in the summer 
of 1869 he was deprived of his eldest 
brother, Count Gabriel Mastai. When 
the news came he retired apart to indulge 
in the grief which overwhelmed his affec- 
tionate heart ; then he appealed to the 
mercy of God for his brother, ascending 
on his knees the Scalasancta, and offering 
the holy sacrifice of the mass. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 317 

As the suinnier passed away active pre- 
parations were made for the holding of 
the Council. Five committees of theolo- 
gians from various countries of Europe 
and America, who? had been maturely 
studying the questions likely to come up 
before the Council, now printed disserta- 
tions and essays for the private use of 
the bishops, to aid in expediting discus- 
sions and debates. The north arm of the 
transept of St. Peter's, that which stretch- 
es toward the Vatican palace, and is dedi- 
cated to Saints Processus and Martinia- 
nus, was inclosed, and fitted up for the use 
of the Council, and supplied with proper 
furniture; rooms were prepared for the 
use of the congregations, secretaries, and 
others who were to take part in the au- 
gust assembly. 

Letters apostolical, dated November 
27th, laid down the order to be observed 
during the holding of the holy (Ecumeni- 
cal Council of- the Vatican, and on the 2d 



318 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



of December, Pius IX., in a general congre- 
gation, before the first session, addressed 
an allocution to the bishops of the Catho- 
lic world assembled in Rome. 

On the appointed day Rome was in- 
stinct with life. Thousands of the faith- 
ful pressed forward to the great church to 
witness a sight seen only once in centu- 
ries. The splendid carriage of the cardi- 
nal rolled by the more modest equipage 
of some poor missionary bishop. The 
great church began to fill, for it is said 
that at least seventy thousand people were 
* present beneath its roof. 

The solemn day was ushered in by the 
booming of the great bell of St. Peter's ; 
the thousand bells of the churches, and 
the cannon of St. Angelo and the Aven- 
tine Fort" joined in the thunderous an- 
nouncement. The Church which had sur- 
vived the Roman empire, which had with- 
stood the barbarians, which the schism of 
the East and the great apostasy of the 



PAUL III. (Alexander Farnese.) 
Born February 28, 1468. 
Reigned 1534-1549. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



821 ' 



West had failed to shake, was about to 
meet in a General Council, one truly (Ecu- 
menical, for all parts of the known world 
were represented, and by a greater body 
of bishops than had ever before assem- 
bled. Since the days of the Council of 
Trent, which opened under Pope Paul 
III., in December, 1545, a period of more 
than three centuries, the world had not 
beheld a council of the whole Church. 

The cardinals, archbishops, and bish- 
ops gathered at an early hour in the Vati- 
can ; then, robed in white copes and mitres, 
they passed to the great hall in front, and 
thence to the vestibule of St. Peter's to 
await the coming of Pius IX., the Sover- 
eign Pontiff. He soon appeared ; all 
knelt in" prayer ; the Pope intoned the 
Veni Creator Spiritus in his clear voice, 
and as the choir took it up, the procession 
moved back into the palace, and down the 
Scala Regia to the vestibule of St. Peter's. 
First came the cross, with burning lights 



I 

322 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



and clouds of incense, then the long 
line of mitred abbots, bishops, archbish- 
ops, primates, and patriarchs, a glorious 
line, most of them men of age, their 
faces showing the lines of care, the im- 
press of experience ; all bishops in their 
very look. Italian, Greek, and German, 
Persian, Syrian, and Hungarian, Spanish 
and Copt, Irish and French, American, 
English, Chinese, Australian, a very world 
gathering. Then came the cardinals, the 
most venerable body in the world ; but 
even they were forgotten, as the Holy 
Father appeared, borne in his curule 
chair, all kneeling as he passed. The 
unmitred heads of religious orders closed 
the line. All knelt in adoration before 
the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the 
high altar, and then the procession en- 
tered the transept beneath a doorway 
over which was a majestic painting of our 
Saviour, and the inscription, " Go, teach 
all nations. I am with you all days, even 



r 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 323 

to the consummation of the world. 1 ' The 
sovereign Pontiff took his seat, and ranged 
on either side were bishops to the num- 
ber of more than six hundred. High 
mass was celebrated by Cardinal Patriz- 
zi, after which Pius IX., in an allocution 
of great beauty and the deepest piety, 
opened the Council. 

The great work of the sessions then 
began, Cardinals Reisach, de Lucca, Biz- 
zari, Bilio, and Capalto being named as 
presidents of the general congregations, 
and Joseph Fessler, Bishop of St. Polten, 
Secretary ; but Cardinal Reisach was then 
prostrated by illness and soon after ex- 
pired, so that Cardinal de Angelis acted 
as first president. 

Other bishops arrived from time to 
time, so that in all seven hundred and 
sixty-seven took part in the proceed- 
ings. 

In the earlier congregations a constitu- 
tion on the election of the Pope, the pro- 



324 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

jected decrees on faith, discipline, and relig- 
ious orders were taken up, and the schema 
on faith was discussed in various sessions 
till the 10th of January. That on disci- 
pline was then taken up and discussed till 
the 22d of February. The subject of the 
catechism next occupied the Council. On 
the 7th of March, a formula of the defini- 
tion of the infallibility of the Pope was 
introduced. The discussion of this point 
showed the first great variance of opinion. 
France, Bavaria, and some other States 
evinced such hostility, that it was feared 
by some of the fathers that any attempt 
on the part of the Council to proceed to a 
definition might lead to a general perse- 
cution. Others feared that an absolute 
declaration on the point might render it 
more difficult than ever to win back the 
Oriental churches, and the members of the 
various Protestant bodies. As to the 
point itself there was scarcely a shade 
of difference; all recognized that the de- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



325 



cisions of the Pope ex cathedra were final, 
appeals to a future Council from his deci- 
sions having been condemned long before 
the Council of Trent ; those who refused 
to submit to Papal decisions on faith, like 
the Jansenists, had been cut off from 
the body of the Church, and no one in 
the Council dreamed of summoning their 
bishops to take part in the proceedings. 

The great powers of the world be- 
gan to show hostility. The Emperor of 
France, in January, 1870, announced his 
intention of preventing the publication of 
the decrees of the Council in that coun- 
try. Under such circumstances more than 
ever did it become the Church of God to 
declare distinctly and beyond all doubt 
what was the deposit of faith. The 
Council could only reply, as the Apos- 
tles replied to the Jewish rulers, and 
as they would have replied to Tiberius, 
Herod, and the King of Persia, had those 
monarchs sought to control the doctrines 



326 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



of Christ, which they taught enlightened 
by the Holy Ghost. 

The second public session had been 
held on the feast of the Epiphany. 
There Pius IX. made his profession of 
faith, followed by all the fathers of the 
Council. There were two subsequent 
public sessions, while the general con- 
gregations had no less than ninety meet- 
ings. In these bishops of all lands spoke 
freely and fully. The third solemn ses- 
sion of the Council was held on Low Sun- 
day. The fathers there voted the first 
Constitution, entitled " Of the Catholic 
Faith." The result of the vote was 
unanimous. Thirty-four cardinals, nine 
patriarchs, eight primates, one hundred 
and seven archbishops, four hundred and 
fifty-seven bishops, twenty-two abbots, and 
twenty-three generals of orders taking 
part. The Holy Father from his throne 
immediately approved this first constitu- 
tion; and in his address gave thanks for 



LIFE OE POPE PIUS IX. 



327 



the peace and harmony which had at- 
tended their action, and would, he prayed, 
continue. This constitution exposes the 
chief errors by which modern society has 
made shipwreck of the faith, and in four 
chapters treats of God, Creator of all 
things, of revelation, faith, and reason. 
It ends with the canons, short summa- 
ries of the chief errors, and their con- 
demnation. 

The form was that employed by the 
Council of Trent, which is deemed per- 
fect in form. 

Then the fathers continued their labors 
and prayers. 

The question in regard to the definition 
of the infallibility was more earnestly de- 
bated, in view of the opposition mani- 
fested by the civil power in Germany and 
France, and by the violent attacks made 
upon it by Dollinger and other Catholic 
professors in Germany. 

On the 13th of June the decree was 



328 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



put to a vote. Six hundred and one bish- 
ops answered, of whom four hundred and 
fifty-one voted in its favor, eighty-eight 
against it, and sixty-two gave a condi- 
tional vote. It remained only to promul- 
gate this decision in a solemn session, 
but Pius IX. would not act precipitately. 
A month passed; war had broken out 
between France and Prussia in which all 
Europe might be involved. 

The fourth solemn session was accord- 
ingly held on the 18th of July. After 
a mass of the Holy Ghost the Pope 
entered; the prayer Adsimius, Domine 
Sancte Spiritus with the litany was re- 
cited, and then the Dogmatic Constitution 
on the Church of Christ was read, and 
the vote of each member of the Council 
taken. Of those who had wished the 
matter deferred till a more seasonable oc- 
casion, some had now joined the majority, 
others were absent. Five hundred and 
thirty -three voted in its favor, two only 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 329 

voted against it ; when the result was an- 
nounced, the sovereign Pontiff rose wear- 
ing his mitre, and proclaimed and sanc- 
tioned by his supreme authority the de- 
crees and canons of the first Dogmatic Con- 
stitution " on the Church of Christ," sol- 
emnly pronouncing the following words: 
"The decrees and canons, which are con- 
tained in the constitution just read, have 
pleased nearly all the fathers. And we, 
the Sacred Council approving, define it 
and them as read, and confirm them by 
our apostolic authority." Then he intoned 
the TeDeum. 

Here for the time the labors of the 
Council terminated. The position of af- 
fairs made it necessary to suspend their 
labors for a season, but a great work had 
been accomplished. By declaring that the 
doctrinal decisions of the Holy See were 
absolutely obligatory without any subter- 
fuge, it adopted the syllabus, and with 
Pius IX., proclaimed that liberalism, as 



330 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



he has defined it, is incompatible with 
sound philosophy and revealed doctrine. 

Bishops had argued and voted against 
the definition ; not a bishop refused to 
acknowledge the act of the Council. All 
promulgated the decrees in their dioceses. 
Such had not been the case after the 
Councils of Nice, Chalcedon, and Constan- 
tinople. After every great decision of 
past Councils a heresy took form, and 
bishops were drawn away. After that 
of the Vatican, Dollinger and his fol- 
lowers, aided by the whole power of the 
German Empire, set up the heresy of 
Old Catholicism in Germany, and Switz- 
erland, but the new heresy could not 
win a single Catholic bishop to their 
uncertain creed. 

Yet the words of opposition, freely 
used, led away a part of the Catholic Ar- 
menians, and a schism arose in that body. 
A spirit of discontent had already exist- 
ed, many disputes arising in regard to 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 331 

the nomination of bishops. A constitu- 
tion issued by the Pope on the 4th of 
July, 1867, had been seized upon by the 
mischievous to mislead many; the decrees 
of the Vatican Council gave them a new 
pretext. They revolted against their legi- 
timate patriarch Hassoun ; the Turkish 
Government, acting under the instigation 
of some of the Christian powers, ban- 
ished the patriarch, and fifteen hundred 
schismatics were put in full possession of 
all the churches of the Catholic Arme- 
nians, who numbered a hundred thousand, 
the faithful being driven out by Turkish 
troops. After vainly endeavoring to re- 
call them to their duty, Pius IX., on the 
30th of March, 1870, was compelled 
to excommunicate these rebellious chil- 
dren. 

The decrees of the Council of the Vat- 
ican were accepted without any opposi- 
tion in the British Isles, France, Spain, 
Portugal, Belgium, Holland, Italy, and 



332 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

America; but the opposition to them 
which had been announced before the 
meeting of the Council, and which had 
been maintained during the sitting of that 
august body, was now brought to a de- 
cisive point. Submission to the decrees 
of the Council, or open apostasy, was the 
only choice. Dollinger and some sixty 
professors and priests, with a few thou- 
sand followers, openly left the Church, 
declaring that the Council had altered 
the ancient faith. They assumed the 
name of Old Catholics. They would 
have died out as a mere sect had they 
not received the support of the Bavarian 
Government, and still more of the Prus- 
sian and German. These latter soon in- 
troduced a series of laws, worthy only 
of some savage race, under which bish- 
ops were fined, imprisoned, exiled, their 
clergy treated in the same way, religious 
orders banished, apostate priests forced 
upon Catholic congregations. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 333 

Switzerland, adopting the same ideas, 
passed similar laws, and began a similar 
persecution ; but both in Germany and in 
Switzerland the so-called Old Catholics, 
with all the power of government to back 
them, failed to seduce the people. The 
apostates never succeeded in gathering 
more than a handful of hearers to attend 
their sacrilegious services. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Victor Emmanuel invades the Papal Terri- 
tory— He takes Rome with an Army oe 
Sixty Thousand Men. — Pius IX. a Pris- 
oner. — His Encyclical denouncing the 
Act. 

On the 17th of July, 1870, France de- 
clared war against Prussia ; the power 
which Napoleon III. had helped to build 
up, was, he now began to see, a danger to 
France. Unwise, unprepared, unsustained 
by Providence, he rushed into the con- 



334 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

test. Ten days later, his ambassador at 
Rome announced to Pope Pius IX. the 
immediate withdrawal of the French 
army of occupation. " It is time to 
pray," said Pius IX., " but all will end 
well." In vain the Holy Father endeav- 
ored to arrest the fatal war; addressing 
letters to Napoleon III. and William, of- 
fering his mediation, and exhorting them 
to peace. By the 6th of August the 
whole force had quitted the States of the 
Church. Thus no time was given to call 
upon any other power for aid, and Vic- 
tor Emmanuel was constantly menacing 
Rome, and Prussia endeavoring to induce 
Garibaldi to renew his inroads. 

While all seemed to forebode a gloomy 
future, Pius IX. moved abroad among his 
people, greeted on all sides by heartiest 
applause. By his order public prayers 
were offered to avert the danger which 
menaced the city, and the faithful flocked 
to St. Peter's to attend the services of the 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 335 

Forty Hours' Devotion. On the 19th of 
September the Holy Father was seen as- 
cending on his knees the Scala Sancta, 
that relic of the Passion of our Lord, ab- 
sorbed in prayer, and in the contempla- 
tion of our Saviour's sufferings. It was 
the last time he appeared in public. Pius 
IX. then returned to the Vatican, from 
which he has not since issued. 

Victor Emmanuel sent Count Ponza di 
San Martino to Rome to ask him to aban- 
don his rights. Pius IX. interrupted him. 
"I am not a prophet nor the son of a 
prophet, but I can assure you that you 
will not remain at Rome. I hope to be 
able to die peacefully in Rome; if Provi- 
dence decides otherwise, His holy will be 
done. But for you, I repeat it, you will 
not long enjoy the fruit of your violence." 
When the shameless envoy persisted, the 
Pope replied, " You are whitened sepul- 
chres. I know you not, and cannot know 
you or in any way treat with you." 



336 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



On the 12th, the Sardinian army to the 
number of sixty thousand, without a dec- 
laration of war, without the shadow of 
any wrong received, invaded the Papal 
territory in three divisions : Cadorna mov- 
ing upon Civita Castellana; Bixio, the 
friend of Garibaldi, on Acquapendente, 
and Angioletti on Ceprano. 

Against such a force the little Pontifical 
army of ten thousand men could not ex- 
pect to hold the territory. After offer- 
ing a momentary resistance at Civita Cas- 
tellana, it fell back to defend Rome. That 
city was soon surrounded on all sides. 
Victor Emmanuel professed to come only 
to defend the Pope from his own people 
and the revolution. The Pope himself 
well expresses what ensues. Victor Em- 
manuel counted on an outbreak in Rome 
to justif}^ his crime. "His army waited 
several days to witness demonstrations of 
the Roman spirit ; but it was in vain. It 
is certain that they then went as far as 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 337 

they deemed seasonable to excite the peo- 
ple to some manifestation in favor of the 
aggressors. Many emissaries from the camp 
entered the city, and vice versa; among 
them, in the first rank, the Minister of 
a foreign power accredited to the Holy 
See (von Arnim, Minister of Prussia). 
This Minister, the true Achithophel of 
our day, spoke peace with his neighbor, 
and evil in his heart ; he used language at 
the Vatican, the very reverse of what he 
employed at the enemy's camp." 

Finding that the Roman people would 
give them no pretext, the invaders re- 
solved to attack Rome. 

A trumpeter advanced from the Sar- 
dinian army to demand the capitulation 
of the city. Pius IX. refused to sur- 
render the capital. His heroic army pre- 
pared to resist the overpowering force; it 
could not hope to defend the city. 

At five o'clock on the morning of Sep- 
tember 20th, the hostile army opened the 



338 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



bombardment of the city, Bixio with the 
heaviest guns at the gate of St. Pancras; 
but the lighter cannon of the Pontifical 
army were so well handled, that they 
silenced Bixio's guns and drove him back. 
At the Porta Mas^iore, General Kanzler's 
handful of men more than held Angio- 
letti at bay. Cadorna himself was at the 
Porta Pia. 

While shells were exploding in all di- 
rections in the streets of the city, the 
Diplomatic Corps waited uj)on the Pope ; 
the}^ found him at the altar calmly saying 
mass. When at its close they solicited an 
audience, he thanked them. He told them 
that, to save the honor of his troops, he 
had been forced to resist, and he called the 
representatives of the powers to witness 
the violence committed against his inde- 
pendence. His orders to General Kanzler 
had been, in fact, to hold out only till a 
breach was made in the walls. As this 
now seemed imminent, Pius IX. begged 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



339 



the foreign ambassadors to repair to the 
headquarters of the enemy, and obtain an 
honorable capitulation for his heroic sob 
diers. 

At the Porta Pia Kanzler, with only 
eight smooth-bore guns on a crumbling 
wall, checked Cadorna, who with two 
full divisions of his army opened upon 
him with fifty-two rifled cannon. He even 
drove the Sardinians back some distance ; 
but Cadorna, by advancing his sharp-shoot- 
ers, was enabled to bring up his artillery 
again, and at ten o'clock effected a breach 
between the Porta Pia and the Porta 
Salaria. 

Then General Kanzler obeyed his in- 
structions. He raised the white flaer. 
Rome capitulated. 

The grief of the Pontifical troops, de- 
voted Catholics who from all lands had 
left Home to defend the Holy Father, was 
extreme. But there was no alternative. 
By the terms of the capitulation they 



340 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



were to be sent out of the country by the 
so-called Italian Government. But the 
Sardinians' and the rabble who accom- 
panied them treated these brave men with 
the utmost wantonness of cruelty and in- 
sult, murdering and maiming many of the 
unarmed officers and soldiers who had 
surrendered. 

It has been made a stigma on the 
great Montcalm that he suffered English 
soldiers to be plundered and murdered by 
the Indians after the surrender of Fort 
William Henry; but modern liberalism 
could not find it worth its while to cen- 
sure Cadorna for giving up his prisoners 
to the savages of his army. 

The great desire of the brave volun- 
teers was to obtain a final audience of the 
Pope. It was deemed too great a trial 
for the deeply-afflicted Pontiff ; but as the 
soldiers drawn up in the great Square of 
St. Peter's sadly bore this last disappoint- 
ment, a shout of joy arose. A window 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX, 



341 



had opened ; Pius IX., awakened by the 
shouts of his faithful defenders, had come 
forth on the balcony. He extended his 
arms as though he wished to clasp them 
all to his heart ; then he raised his hands 
and his eyes to heaven, and blessed the sol- 
diers kneeling in tears before him. Once 
more he extended his arms and raised 
them to heaven. It was his last farewell. 

Then the troops filed out and laid down 
their arms at the Porta San Pancrazio, be- 
fore the Sardinian generals and the Prus- 
sian Ambassador to the Holy See, who 
ranged himself with them. 

For some days the city was in a manner 
at the mercy of the scum which had ac- 
companied the invading force, and which 
Cadorna took no steps to repress, the 
object being evidently to terrorize the 
people with a view to what was next in 
the plan laid out. 

On the 2d of October, by order of Vic- 
tor Emmanuel, an election was held to de- 



342 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



cide whether the city of Rome and the 
Papal States should remain independent, 
or be annexed to the so-called Kingdom 
of Italy. The invading army and all its 
camp-followers voted. The terrorized peo- 
ple of Rome dared not approach the polls. 
Though the city and States had at least a 
hundred and fifty thousand voters, the 
whole vote, even counting the invaders, 
was only forty thousand. This was enough. 
They declared Rome annexed by the will 
of the people. 

A royal decree declared Rome and the 
Roman provinces an integral part of 
the Kingdom of Italy. A second article 
added : " The Sovereign Pontiff preserves 
his dignity, inviolability, and all the pre- 
rogatives of a sovereign." A third said: 
"A special law will sanction the condi- 
tions proper to guarantee, even by terri- 
torial franchises, the independence of the 
sovereign Pontiff and the free exercise of 
the spiritual authority of the Holy See." 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 343 

. Catholics in England, France, Spain, 
Ireland, America, in the thousand coun- 
tries of the world, might ask how the 
King of Piedmont had acquired the 
power to grant to the sovereign Pon- 
tiff independence in the free exercise of 
his spiritual authority, or deprive him 
of it. 

Pius IX. could only deplore in silence 
all this crime, violence, and hypocrisy. 
Abandoned by all the great powers of 
Europe, he could do nothing to save his 
people from the war now made upon their 
religion. The monster who came profess- 
ing to defend the Holy See, began that 
work by seizing the religious houses and 
the property of the churches, by breaking 
up the educational establishments of the 
Church, and by favoring every system 
of error, in order to weaken and destroy 
the Catholic Church. 

The further continuance of the Vatican 
Council became for the time impossible. 



344 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

Pius IX. suspended it by his brief of 
October 20. A few bishops from remote 
countries, who had lingered at Rome in 
hopes to see it resume its sessions, grad- 
ually dispersed, bearing to their distant 
flocks the sad tidings that the house of 
God was in the hands of the infidel. 

The heart of Christendom was moved. 
In October the Catholics of Germany re- 
paired to the tomb of St. Boniface at Ful- 
da, to pray, where their apostle lay, for 
the Holy Father. In all lands prayers 
rose up to the throne of God, and ad- 
dresses were sent to Rome to console the 
tried and afflicted Pope, by the expres- 
sion of their devotion and zeal. From 
Italy itself, where the devotion was clear 
and unmistakable, to the Indians of the 
Rocky Mountains in the west, and the 
Chinese in the east, the voice of Cath- 
olicity was unanimous. 

On the 1st of November, Pius IX. ad- 
dressed to all the bishops in communion 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



345 



with the Holy See an encyclical letter. 
He had it printed at Geneva, for he 
placed little confidence in the articles 
of Victor Emmanuel. That document 
guaranteed his spiritual independence, 
but no sooner did the allocution appear, 
than every paper publishing it was sup- 
pressed. 

This encyclical traced summarily the 
hostile acts of the Piedmontese Govern- 
ment during the preceding eleven years. 
It refers to the allocutions, encyclicals, 
and briefs on the subject from the 1st of 
November, 1850, as exposing to this cen- 
tury and to posterity the wiles, the un- 
worthy and skillful maneuvers that en- 
abled that government to crush justice ; 
the seizure of part of the territory in 
1859 ; the treacherous attack on his army 
in 1860; the hypocrisy with which they 
pretended to seek only to restore the prin- 
ciples of morality and order, when in fact 
they allowed the diffusion of every form 



346 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

of unbelief and of vice, insulted and im- 
prisoned the ministers of religion, and de- 
spised the very Head of the Church ; then 
the constant endeavors by emissaries to ex- 
cite the people of Rome and its vicinity 
to revolt, and when that failed, the letting 
loose on his frontiers of hordes of crimi- 
nals and adventurers, aided by means sup- 
plied by the Sardinian Government, till 
God in his mercy arrested their cruelty by 
the valor of the little Pontifical army and 
the aid of France. 

While his subjects were in profound 
peace, the King of Sardinia, taking the 
advantage of the disasters of France, sud- 
denly invaded his remaining territory, and 
addressed him a letter, which the Pope 
justly describes as a long and lying tissue 
of words and phrases put forward as those 
of a devoted and Catholic son, who asked 
the Pope not to consider the overthrow of 
his temporal power an act of hostility, and 
begged him to renounce it voluntarily 



PIUS VII. (Gregory Ohiaramonti.) 
Born August 14, 1742. 
Eeigned 1800-1823. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



349 



and trust to his promises, in order, accord- 
ing to the phrase of the day, to reconcile 
what they styled the wish of the Italians, 
with the supreme right and the free au- 
thority of the Roman Pontiff. 

" As to the demands presented to us, 1 ' 
says the Pope nobly, " we could not hesi- 
tate, and obeying the laws of duty -and 
conscience, we followed the example of 
our predecessors, and especially of Pius 
VII. of happy memory, whose courage- 
ous words we shall here cite and borrow: 
"We remembered like Saint Ambrose that 
the holy man Naboth, owner of a vine- 
yard, was requested in the king's name to 
give up his property, that the king might 
replace the vines by mean vegetables, 
and that he answered, 1 Our Lord be mer- 
ciful to me, that I give not the inheritance 
of my fathers to thee.' Far less do we 
deem ourselves permitted to give up the 
ancient and sacred inheritance, that tem- 
poral power of the Holy See, which an 



350 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

evident design of divine Providence has 
preserved for so many centuries to our 
predecessors the Roman Pontiffs, or to 
consent even tacitly that another should 
possess the capital of the Catholic world, 
to trouble and destroy the holy form of 
government which Jesus Christ left to his 
Church, and which the holy canons framed 
by the Spirit of Grod have organized, in 
order to substitute a contrary body op- 
posed to the sacred canons and the evan- 
gelical precepts, and to introduce as is 
their wont a new order of things, mani- 
festly tending to associate and confound 
together all sects and superstitions with 
the Catholic Church. 

" Naboth defended his vineyard at the 
price of his blood. Can we, happen what 
may, not defend the rights and posses- 
sions of the holy Roman Church, to whose 
defense, within the limits of possibility, 
we bound ourselves by a solemn oath ? 
Can we fail to maintain the liberty of the 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 351 

Apostolic See, with which the liberty and 
unity of the universal Church is so inti- 
mately connected ? 

"As to the great fitness and necessity 
of this temporal power to assure the 
Supreme Head of the Church the se- 
cure and free exercise of the spiritual 
power which he received from God over 
the whole world, the present events, in 
default of the proofs, would suffice amply 
to prove." (Letters Apostolic, June 10, 
1809.) 

The Pope then refers to the attack 
made on Rome, without waiting even for 
his answer to the royal letter to reach the 
king, and the bombardment and capture 
of the city by order of one who had just 
solemnly protested his filial affection to 
the Pope and his fidelity to religion. 

" Since that day," says Pius IX., " there 
have been accomplished things before our 
eyes which we cannot mention without 
exciting the indignation of all good men ; 



352 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



infamous books, full of falsehood, turpi- 
tude, and impiety are exposed for sale at 
low prices and scattered on all sides; 
hosts of papers published daily to corrupt 
the minds and morals, to degrade and 
calumniate religion, to excite public opin- 
ion against the sovereign Pontiff, and the 
Apostolic See ; impure and disgraceful 
pictures, and works of the kind published 
to hold up to insult and ridicule sacred 
persons and things; honors and monu- 
ments accorded to those whom justice and 
the law had punished for their crimes ; the 
ministers of the Church, against whom pas- 
sions are excited, generally insulted, some 
even treacherously struck and wounded; 
many religious houses subjected to unjust 
search ; our palace of the Quirinal violated ; 
a cardinal of the holy Roman Church vio- 
lently expelled from the apartments which 
he occupied ; other ecclesiastics belong- 
ing to our household excluded from 
that edifice, and harassed by vexations; 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



353 



laws and decrees passed that manifestly 
wound and suppress liberty, the immu- 
nity of property, and the rights of the 
Church of God ; and all these evils, grave 
as they are, will, unless God raises some 
obstacle, become still worse. And yet our 
present condition prevents our applying 
any remedy, and thus makes us feel the 
captivity in which we are, and the ab- 
sence of that full liberty, which the intru- 
sive government in its lying statements 
assures the world it leaves us to exercise 
our Apostolic ministry." 

He repeats again his resolution to re- 
tain and transmit all the rights of the 
Holy See to his successors, and stamps all 
the usurpation as null and illegal ; he de- 
clares and protests before God and the 
whole Catholic world that he undergoes 
such a captivity that it is utterly impossi- 
ble for him to exercise his pastoral author- 
ity with security, ease, and liberty. 

This grand document closes with ap- 
23 



354 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



peals to all to pray for the Church of 
God amid the evils come upon it, and es- 
pecially for a speedy deliverance and the 
restoration of peace. It will ever remain 
as a record of the great wrongs perpe- 
trated on Italy by an ambitious king, and 
the revolutionary ideas of which he is the 
instrument, as well as of the noble firm- 
ness of the great Pope, and his solemn 
protest in the name of God and Christian- 
ity 



CHAPTEK XIII. 

The Prisoner of the Vatican. — The Law of 
Guarantees. — The Encyclical of May, 
1871, condemning it. — peter's pence. — its 

E XI PLOYME NT. — Th E Y E A RS OF PETER. — T HE 

Twenty-fifth Anniversary of his Elec- 
tion and Coronation. 

The last remnant of the temporal power 
had been wrested from the Pope. His 
palaces, except the Vatican, were seized. 
Possession w T as taken of the Quirinal to 



LIFE OF POPE PITTS IX. 357 

convert it into a residence for Victor 
Emmanuel. Convents, churches, hospitals 
even were seized for barracks, government 
offices, stables. Nothing was left to Pope 
Pius IX. but the little corvette, the Im- 
maculate Conception, over which his flag 
still floated, and which, after cruising in 
the waters of Civita Vecchia, finally took 
refuge at Toulon. The Pope is indeed at 
the Vatican ; but the so-called Italian gov- 
ernment claims that palace, with its gal- 
leries and treasures of art, and even the 
archives of the Church. It is guarded by 
soldiers of Victor Emmanuel and watched 
by his police. The danger of the Pope 
appealing personally to his people was 
deemed so great that the guards without 
made the windows the dead line. Every 
one appearing conspicuously at a window 
found that he was at once covered by the 
rifles of the soldiery without. 

Most of those who held office under the 
Pontifical government refused to take the 



358 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

oath of allegiance to the conqueror ; the 
Marquis Cavalletti, Mayor of Rome, set the 
example, which magistrates, professors, li- 
brarians, directors of museums immediately 
followed. They were dispossessed to make 
room for brigands who had followed Gari- 
baldi. The Roman Academy of Arch- 
aeology, refusing to change its name from 
Pontifical to Royal, was dispersed. The 
mint was spared for a time, but finally 
stopped. Pius IX. believes in the sanctity 
of an oath. He could not authorize his 
officers to commit an act of perjury. 

Victor Emmanuel, to palliate his con- 
duct, passed in March, 1871, an act called 
the Law of Guarantees. It was not a 
compact with the Holy See, but a mere 
act of the so-called Italian legislature, 
which could be repealed at any day when 
there was a majority in favor of doing so. 
It therefore really guaranteed nothing. It 
Was not like our constitutions, something 
above and beyond the ordinary will of the 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



359 



legislature. In point of fact it has been 
a farce, as every clause has been annulled 
virtually. The first article declared the 
person of the sovereign Pontiff sacred and 
inviolable ; but his residence is surrounded 
by soldiers with loaded rifles, who would 
not permit him to show himself in public. 
Article 2 provides that any attempt against 
the person of the Holy Father, or pro- 
vocation thereto shall be punished as simi- 
lar offenses against the king. Yet mobs 
have denounced the Pope in opprobrious 
terms, carried him around in effigy, en- 
couraging the vile to violence, and no one 
has ever been punished for it. The infidel 
press has teemed with libels upon him, 
and they remain unchecked. An annual 
provision of 3, '225,000 lire, equal to about 
half a million of dollars, is assigned to the 
Pope; he has never received it, nor has it 
been paid. The Vatican and Lateran pal- 
aces and Castle Gandolfo, as well as the 
museums, libraries, are reserved to the 



360 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



Pope, but declared inalienable. They are 
therefore not his. 

Article 9 tells the Catholics of other 
countries that the so-called Italian gov- 
ernment kindly consents that the Sover- 
eign Pontiff be fully free to fulfill all the 
functions of his spiritual ministry, and 
to post up on the doors of the basilicas 
and churches of Rome all the acts of 
his said ministry. Yet, in fact, the police 
have repeatedly torn down encyclicals and 
other documents thus affixed. By article 
15, bishops are not required to take the 
oath to the king; the exequatur and 
placet are abolished, but in fact bishops 
who clo not take the oath and obtain the 
placet are deprived of their income. The 
18th article confiscated in advance all ec- 
clesiastical property under pretense of 
reorganizing, preserving, and administer- 
ing it. 

Pius IX. refused utterly to acknowledge 
the law, or to accept it as a compact. He 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 361 



declared it to be a law of hypocrisy and in- 
iquity. The first and only time payment 
of the allowance was tendered to him he 
repulsed the draft and its bearer. " I need 
money, it is true. My children throughout 
the world bleed themselves, so to say, to 
meet my wants and the many other wants 
you create daily ; but what you offer me 
is only part of my own property stolen 
from me ; I will never accept it from you 
except as a restitution ; I will never give 
you a signature which would seem to im- 
ply my acquiescence in the robbery." 

By robbing the Pope of his possessions, 
depriving him of his temporal power, 
these men sought to abase the head of 
the Church, to plunge him into poverty, 
and make him a degraded outcast in the 
eyes of the world. Never were men more 
deceived. They recall the graphic picture 
in the book of Wisdom of the sinners 
awakening to their folly on the day of 
judgment. They too may cry : Ergo er- 



362 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

ravimus ! The possession of Rome has 
not enriched the kingdom of fraud and 
violence ; its loss has not impoverished the 
Pope. 

When the Sovereign Pontiff was seen to 
he a prisoner in the hands of his unrelent- 
ing enemies, and he. had early in Septem- 
ber, 1870, decided not to leave Rome, in 
hopes that his presence would be some 
check to the headlong course of evil, the 
whole Catholic world was moved. The 
old Peter's Pence of early days was re- 
vived. France took the lead: and the 
idea was generously followed in all lands. 
In every church throughout the world a 
collection is regularly made for the Holy 
Father. Pius IX., rejected by Italy as a 
prince, is the Pope of the whole world, 
and the whole Catholic world readily con- 
tributes to his support and the manage- 
ment of the Church. 

" Providence daily works a great mira- 
cle for me, and this miracle is as clear 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 363 

as the sun to the whole world, for it 
is from the whole world it proceeds. 
I am deprived of everything, but my 
children support me. From all quar- 
ters they send to their Father, and 
ask no account, and this Father, who 
has no resource except their gifts, is as- 
sisted so abundantly, that he not only has 
enough for himself, whose personal wants 
are but trifling, but they enable him 
to display generosity and give in his 
turn." 

The prisoner of the Vatican not only 
still pays the salaries of many of his old 
dispossessed officers, but even maintains 
on half or quarter pay a certain part of 
his old army. He also maintains his es- 
tablishment for poor boys, " The Vigna 
Pia," and a The Tata Giovanni," from which 
the usurpers withdrew all the revenues, 
for the simple reason that it was so dear 
to Pius IX. He also supports many of 
the Catholic schools, which endeavor to 



364 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



make Lead against the irreligious or God- 
less schools introduced by the invaders. 

Besides all this is the maintenance of 
the Sacred College, prelates, guards, the 
keeping of the museums, allowances to 
bishops in Italy, Switzerland, and Ger- 
many, exiled for the faith and deprived of 
all means. This all requires between six 
and seven millions of dollars a year, and 
it increases steadily as the older Italian 
bishops die. Means are required also to 
maintain the young seminarians, many of 
whom are forced into the army and others 
deprived of the institutions in which they 
were formerly trained. Wherever a good 
work appeals, the Pope gives freely. 

In spite of these heavy burthens on the 
Sovereign Pastor, Pius IX. is enabled to 
act as king even in his captivity. He has 
executed several works of art or of pub- 
lic utility at Rome, he has completed the 
restoration of Sant Angelo in Peschiera, 
and the magnificent portico of Octavia. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



365 



When a commission of artists reported 
the ruinous condition of the tomb of his 
holy predecessor, Gregory VIL, at Salerno, 
he restored it at his own expense, with the 
inscription engraved by order of that Pope 
himself: " I have loved justice and hated 
iniquity, and lo ! I die in exile — Dilexi 
justitiam et odi iniquitatem, et ecce in 
exilio morior." He maintains at his own 
expense the famous mosaic workers of the 
Vatican, and keeps them employed. The 
specimens sent by the Holy Father to 
the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia 
show all what these mosaics are ; Pius IX. 
is still able to bestow them as royal gifts, 
admired and appreciated in all parts. 

The governments stood aloof and saw 
the Supreme Pontiff robbed of the States 
so long the portion of the Church, and so 
necessary to his free action, yet the prin- 
ces of the world could not but bow in 
reverence to the greatness of Pius IX. 
Even they came as pilgrims to him, and 



366 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



received gifts at his hands, paid for, we 
may say, by the contributions of the faith- 
ful in America, Ireland, Germany, and 
France. 

Two of the Russian princes admitted to 
an audience with the Pope, were struck 
with the beauty of a magnificent mosaic 
table, the only rich piece in the simple 
chamber of him who is personally so poor 
and simple in his life. " You are preoc- 
cupied,'' said the Pope. They attempted 
to excuse themselves. " Ah ! but you are," 
he said, " and I know why. You are as- 
tonished to see this fine table amid my 
poor furniture." The color in their cheeks 
showed that the Pope had guessed truly. 
" Well," said Pius IX., " I will explain it : 
this furniture is suited to me ; it is mine. 
The mosaic table does not belong to me; 
since it pleases you, it is yours." 

These guests were of the family of that 
Alexander II. whose hands are red with 
the blood of murdered Catholics ! 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 367 

The captivity of the Holy Father began 
September 20, 1870. On the feast of the 
Immaculate Conception in that year, all 
the Catholics of Italy were invited to offer 
up holy communion for the Pope. Never 
was a nobler manifestation of Christian 
sentiment given than on this general com- 
munion. The 8th of December was really 
Catholic Italy's day of prayer in favor of 
the See of Peter. Pius IX. had chosen this 
beloved feast to perform a great act of 
apostolic authority. He published in the 
greater basilicas the decree which declared 
St. Joseph, the fosterfather of our Lord, 
Patron of the Universal Church. The 
whole Catholic world, laymen, priests, 
bishops, and cardinals had often solicited 
this decree from the Sovereign Pontiff. 
The petitions were urgent during the ses- 
sions of the council. Now, when the evil 
days prevailed, Pius IX. yielded his as- 
sent. The world believes only in material 
progress, in material gains, in material 



368 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

goods. It wars on the spirit and the spir- 
itual. What can be grander than the faith 
of Pius IX. ! Amid all the onset of the 
world he constantly raises minds to heav- 
enly things, he constantly endeavors to 
bring heaven and earth more closely to- 
gether, to bring those who on earth seek 
to serve God, and save their souls and the 
souls of others, in concert with those who 
reign with him in glory. He seems like 
one raised far above our earth, seeking to 
raise all minds to heaven, catching like 
Moses and Elias some rays of the glory to 
console and encourage the disciples. 

On the 15th of May, 1871, Pius IX. is- 
sued an encyclical in which he stigmatized 
with just severity the deceptive charac- 
ter of modern society. He protests nobly 
against the violence of which he is the vic- 
tim; he thanks the bishops and the faithful 
for the tokens of fidelity which they con- 
stantly give him ; and taking up the shal- 
low and deceptive Law of Guarantees, by 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 369 

which the Italian government seeks to 
palliate its enormous crime, he unmasks 
all its duplicity, treachery, and vileness. 
This encyclical, couched in the boldest 
language, is a proof of the unconquered 
courage and unshaken firmness of Pius 
IX. The Catholic world regarded with 
noble pride its august head, while the ene- 
mies of the Church vented their hatred 
and their impotent wrath. They had 
hoped to crush Catholicity by seizing 
Rome and abasing the Pope. They gave 
new life and energy to the Church, and 
made Pius IX. a spectacle to angels and 
to men. Ergo erravimus ! 

A month later, amid all the tribula- 
tions, heaven granted to the great Pope 
and the whole Catholic world afflicted in 
his person, a consolation without prece- 
dent. On the 16th of June, 1871, Provi- 
dence permitted Pius IX. to celebrate an 
anniversary which no one in the long line 
of Popes had been permitted to see. He 



370 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



reached and passed the years of Saint 
Peter's pontificate at Rome. 

" Thou shalt not see the years of Peter " 
had been said of every Pope, and till Pius 
IX. not one had done so. 

The chief of the Apostles spent two 
years in Rome and its vicinity ; then pre- 
sided over the church of Antioch for 
seven years. In 42 he made Rome the 
capital of the world, the central See of 
Christianity, and remained there till his 
death under Nero, in the year 67, having 
governed the Church from that city 
twenty-five years. 

The anniversary of June 16, 1871,- was 
not celebrated throughout the city of 
Rome with all the pomp that would have 
been displayed had it still been the great 
Catholic city and not a slave, with church 
and shrine profaned. The solemnities 
were confined to the basilicas of St. Peter 
and St. John Lateran, but the crowd of 
worshipers was overwhelming. All ranks 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 373 

and a^es were confounded in this mani- 
festation of love to Pius IX. and supplica- 
tion to God to succor him, and rescue him 
from the hands of his enemies. 

The whole Catholic world was in con- 
cert with the Romans. From the rising to 
the setting sun masses and communions 
were offered for Peter in chains, as of old, 
in the days of Herod. The telegraph 
brought felicitations from all continents. 
The sovereigns of Europe, led by Queen 
Victoria, paid homage to Pius IX., few, 
very few, omitting to honor him. Deputa- 
tions reached Rome, so that one day the 
Pope almost needed the gift of Pentecost : 
he spoke no less than twelve times, in 
Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian. 

It will scarcely be credited that on this 
occasion of holy joy when the illustrious 
successor of Saint Peter was thus sur- 
rounded by his faithful children, the arch- 
enemy of the Church, the very man who 
had deprived him of all his possessions 



374 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

as Pontiff, sought to force his way into his 
august presence. Yet it was so : and 
doubtless it was only to delude the Cath- 
olic world, by making it appear that the 
Pope received him cordially and pardoned 
all he had done. 

Victor Emmanuel sent General Bertole 
Viale to Cardinal Anton elli to ask when 
he might be received by his Holiness to 
offer him the congratulations of the king. 
The General did not even see that Cardi- 
nal; he was received and bowed out by 
his Eminence's secretary. 

It was not his last attempt. Conscious 
that his whole conduct, weighed in the 
impartial scales of history, would be 
stamped with the deepest reprobation, he 
made another attempt in 1872, which we 
will here anticipate. In that year the 
weak Emperor of Brazil, another tool of 
anti-Catholic revolution and imprisoner 
of bishops, was in Borne. He shocked 
Catholic feeling by becoming the guest of 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



375 



Victor Emmanuel before paying his hom- 
age to the oppressed Vicar of Christ. 
One morning the emperor presented him- 
self at the Vatican while the Pope was 
saying mass. At its conclusion, Pius IX. 
was informed of the presence of the Em- 
peror of Brazil, most unexpected at that 
early hour. 

The Pope ordered him to be intro- 
duced. When he entered, Pius IX. 
asked : " What does your Majesty de- 
sire?" "I beg your Holiness not to call 
me Majesty, I am here simply Count of 
Alcantara." The Pope rejoined : " Well, 
my dear Count, what is your wish ? " 
"Your Holiness, I come to beg you to 
permit me to present to you his Majesty, 
the King of Italy." At these words, the 
Holy Father rose, and with a look that 
startled the intermeddling emperor, ex- 
claimed : " It is useless to address such 
language to me. Let the King of Pied- 
mont abjure his wrong-doing, let him re- 



376 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

store my States to me, and then I will see 
him. Not before." 

Some affect to think the attitude of the 
Pope harsh and unforgiving. The Pope is 
by his oath but the depositary of power 
received from his predecessors to hand in- 
tact to the next Sovereign Pontiff. He 
cannot alienate his States or approve the 
violence to religion offered in them. To 
this he must always say : " Non possu- 
mus " — " We cannot." 

By the convention made in September, 
1864, between Victor Emmanuel and Napo- 
leon III., Victor Emmanuel bound himself 
by oath, that if the Emperor would with- 
draw his troops from Rome, he would not 
only not attack the dominions of the Holy 
See, but would protect them against any 
other invaders. The Emperor withdrew 
his troops, and left the Pope unsupported 
until the massing of Garibaldi's forces, 
unchecked by Victor Emmanuel, showed 
that Victor Emmanuel had violated his 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 377 

oath. Napoleon III. finally withdrew the 
troops when there was no danger to the 
Pope except from Victor Emmanuel. The 
question then is whether Victor Emman- 
uel kept his oath. Leaving aside all ques- 
tions of right, has he invaded the Pope's 
dominions or not ? As Ions; as France 
was strong enough to resent, in case of 
perjury, the promise was kept, evidently 
not because an oath was deemed binding, 
but because France could enforce it. The 
moment France was weakened, the fear 
vanished, the oath was broken. Victor 
Emmanuel swore he would not invade 
Rome, but would protect it against in- 
vaders. To keep his oath he should have 
stood beside General Kanzler to defend 
the Porta Pia. How can the Pope make 
terms with a king who is bound by no 
law of national comity, by no law of 
nations, not even by a solemn oath! 

In view of all this, a high priest of the 
living Grod, who by his position is to re. 



378 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

buke the evil doer, be lie king or beggar, 
cannot by word or deed countenance per- 
jury and oppression. 

How uneasy the crown of Italy sits on 
the head of the usurper was seen in 1877, 
when a mere change of ministry in France 
alarmed Italy and made it fear that the 
day of reckoning had come. The day 
must come, and the evil doers must live in 
constant dread of it. 

Let us return to the glorious anniver- 
sary of the Pope on which this application 
of Victor Emmanuel cast the only shadow. 

It is a long established rule in Rome 
to commemorate by monuments and med- 
als all important events. The day cel- 
ebrated seemed to the chapter of St. 
Peters to deserve such a lasting memento. 
Above that ancient statue of St. Peter 
which in the days of Attila, Pope St. Leo 
cast from the fragments of the Capitoline 
Jove, they set a beautiful mosaic me- 
dallion of Pope Pius IX. supported by 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



379 



two bronze angels, the whole resting on a 
tablet of antique marble bearing this in- 
scription : 

PIO IX. PONT. MAX. 
QVI PETRI ANNOS 
IN PONTIFICATV ROMANO 

VNVS iEQVAVIT 

CLERVS VATICANVS 
SACRAM ORNAVIT SEDEM 

XIV. KAL. QVINT. A MDOOOLXXI. * 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Victor Emmanuel in Rome. — Seizure of the 
Quirinal. — Devotion of the Romans to 
Pius IX. — Persecution of the Church in 
Germany and Switzerland. — The Sa- 
cred College. — An Irish Cardinal. — 
Persecution in Brazil, Russia, and 
Italy. — An American Cardinal. 

The anniversary of Pope Pius IX. 
forced Victor Emmanuel to a step from 

* To the Sovereign Pontiff Pius IX., who alone 
in his pontificate equalled the years of Peter, the 
Vatican clergy adorned this sacred seat June 16th, 
1871. 



380 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

which he had long shrunk with a sort 
of superstitious terror, for his faith has 
degenerated to a mere superstition ; his 
evil counsellors showed him that he must 
make Rome his capital and residence, 
as in fact Pius IX. was really king in 
Rome, receiving the homage of all, the 
tribute of all hearts. Accordingly, on the 
2d of July, 1871, Victor Emmanuel made 
his entry into Rome and installed himself 
in the Quirinal palace. His court, less 
scrupulous than he, adapted the palace of 
the Popes to their vain and frivolous 
pleasures, and attempted to be at home ; 
but the attempt was vain. The triumph- 
ant anti-Catholic revolution had for years 
aspired to the possession of Rome, as the 
crown of all their desires. They had 
reached it by perjury, fraud, and violence ; 
but what had they gained ? They pos- 
sessed only the palaces they occupied, the 
churches and convents they seized; streets 
almost as devoid of life as those ruined 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 381 

ones that recalled the memory of ancient 
Rome. It was a Dead Sea fruit that had 
tempted their eyes and turned to ashes 
on their lips. Time did not change the 
condition of affairs. Real Rome was to 
be found in the churches and in pilgrim- 
ages to the Vatican. Rich and poor, noble 
and plebeian shrank alike from the in- 
vader and his godless horde. The invaders 
felt it, as one of their papers exclaimed 
months after : "Italy is as much a stranger 
here as it was the first day. Rome does 
not resemble a friendly city, but a city 
constantly writhing under a prolonged 
military occupation which it bears impa- 
tiently." For once the revolution spoke 
truly. 

Only a few days after Victor Emman- 
uel's entry, Pius IX. received in the Vati- 
can a deputation from a Catholic Congress 
at Rome, who presented an address signed 
by more than twenty-seven thousand citi- 
zens of the Eternal City. "With them he 



382 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

deplored the deluge of iniquity that had 
overflowed the city; and he announced his 
firm resolution to make no com]3romise. 
" I am weary of all this ; and yet I am 
not disposed to lay down my arms, nor 
debase myself to make any compact with 
iniquity. I shall fulfill my duty to the 
end." The next month, in August, a dep- 
utation of the Roman nobility, headed 
by the Marquis Cavalletti, saluted the 
Pope as Pius the Great and offered him a 
throne of gold. Pius IX. declined both 
title and throne with firmness, and yet 
with all his wonted cheerfulness. " What ! 
in my lifetime ! I admire your imj)ru- 
dence. The Church to canonize her saints 
waits till they are dead, and long dead. 
Humanity should be in no greater haste 
to canonize her heroes, for so long as a 
man breathes, no one can aver that his 
heroism will not belie itself." 

The violent seizure of Rome, and the 
desolating war between France and Prus- 



life or pope pius ix, 383 

sia kept many from the Eternal City, and 
caused many others to forsake it. It 
gradually assumed the air of a plague- 
stricken capital. Grieved as the Holy 
Father was at the afflictions which he 
saw about to befall his faithful people, 
he put all his trust in God and urged all 
to prayer, to look for relief rather to 
heaven than to earth. 

The year 1872 was for the Pope one of 
trial. He saw evil done before his eyes, 
but was unable to repress it. He could 
but express his grief to the faithful who 
from all parts of his States nocked to him, 
the brave and devoted women of Traste- 
vere or those more exalted in the eyes of 
the world. On the twenty-sixth anniver- 
sary of his coronation, delegates of two 
hundred dioceses of Italy came to tender 
him their homage, and his heart expanded 
with love for the whole country. " I bless 
Italy, but not those who oppress and scan- 
dalize it; I bless that privileged land 



384 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

which has produced so many remarkable 
men, so many holy souls, so many models 
of piety, and may the blessing have power 
to destroy evil and deliver us from the 
woes and oppression that now crush us." 

But it was not only the faithful who 
came to pay homage to the Pope. The 
prince and princess of Wales, the future 
rulers of England, sought an audience. Pius 
IX. could in all sincerity thank the son of 
Queen Victoria for the freedom which the 
Church enjoyed in his mother's posses- 
sions, a freedom employed by Catholics 
only to refute by their conduct the false 
accusations raised against the Church in 
other countries where real liberty is un- 
known, but tyranny rules in her name. 

During the year 1872, Pius IX. estab- 
lished two new sees in the United States, 
Ogdensburg and Providence, having pre- 
viously in 1870 given a bishop to Spring- 
field, Massachusetts, and to St. Augustine, 
the most ancient city in the Republic. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 385 

The victory gained by Prussia over 
humbled France, and the establishment 
of a German empire under William I. 
were followed by an open persecution of 
the Catholics, evidently planned long be- 
fore, but ascribed now to the Vatican 
Council, which it was pretended entirely 
had changed the constitution of the Catho- 
lic Church. The ministers of the emperor 
were encouraged by a few rationalist Ca- 
tholics at Munich, high in favor with King 
Louis II., who had denounced the Vati- 
can Council, refused to acknowledge it, and 
excited fears as to its action. They formed 
the sect calling themselves Old Catholics, 
and led Bismarck to believe that with sup- 
port they would soon rally around them 
nearly all the Catholics in Germany in a 
new organization ready to blend with 
Protestants, and be a supple instrument 
in the hands of government. The Catho- 
lic bishops and clergy would join them 

heartily or readily submit, they asserted. 
13 



386 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



Six years have shown that the real bish- 
ops and priests of Germany remain faith- 
ful to Rome, with the great mass of the 
German Catholics ; that the priests who 
joined the new heresy number only thirty, 
and their adherents scattered all over Ger- 
many only seventeen thousand. In Bonn, 
where the bishop of the new sect fixed 
his residence, he cannot gather a flock of 
a hundred and fifty out of a population 
of twenty-five thousand. The real Catho- 
lic bishops and clergy have not joined 
them spontaneously, and though Germa- 
ny could overwhelm France by brute 
force, she has year after year wielded that 
brute force with all the severity of baffled 
hate, and has utterly failed to drive a 
single bishop, priest, or even German 
child out of the Catholic Church into the 
new heresy. 

Bismarck himself called his series of 
laws a war on the Church. They began 
by expelling without any judicial form, 



LIFE OF POPE PIFS IX. 387 

and depriving of the right of citizenship, 
all the members of the Society of Jesus, 
and other orders which the law pretended 
were affiliated with the Jesuits. Many of 
these priests had been decorated for ser- 
vices rendered in the army during the late 
war. The May or Falk laws, as they are 
styled, from their author, then suppressed 
all the ecclesiastical seminaries, under pre- 
tense of training the aspirants to the 
priesthood to a higher scientific degree in 
the German universities, hotbeds of dissi- 
pation and rationalism. The laws then 
abolished the articles of the Prussian Con- 
stitution which guaranteed the rights of 
the various faiths; they gave the State 
the power to nominate to ecclesiastical 
functions, and forbade bishops to exclude 
apostates from the Catholic communion. 
They also suppressed the stipends which 
were paid to the bishops and clergy as a 
compensation for the Church property of 
which the government had taken posses- 



388 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



sion ; but they held out a lure to the weak, 
promising payment to all who submitted. 
To drive the clergy to starvation they 
forbade any collections to be made for 
their support or the maintenance of divine 
worship. Lay elective commissions were 
created to manage Church property, and 
finally all religious orders of men and 
women, and even the Sisters of Charity, 
were suppressed. 

Pius IX., at the very outset of these 
persecutions, addressed a note to the Prus- 
sian Government recalling the fidelity of 
the German Catholics to all their duties as 
citizens, and asking how it was possible 
that they could have become conspirators 
against its well-being. But his appeal was 
disregarded, and new severities were in- 
flicted. The Prussian bishops could not 
yield. In May, 1873, they declared that 
the Church cannot recognize the pagan 
principle that the laws of the state are 
the source of all ri^ht, and the Church 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 389 

has only such rights as the state concedes 
to her. She cannot deny the divinity of 
her origin without making Christianity 
itself depend on the arbitrary will of 
men. Fines and imprisonment were now 
meted out to the doomed bishops and 
clergy, and a state tribunal assumed to 
depose them. The archbisbop of Posen, 
the bishop of Paderborn, the prince bishop 
of Breslau and others still, were impris- 
oned. The bishops of England and the 
United States encouraged these confessors 
of the faith, and Pope Pius wrote person- 
ally to the Emperor William on the 7th of 
August, 1873; but the emperor replied 
with unworthy subterfuges, and showed 
his hearty approval of the whole system 
so disgraceful to a country where freedom 
of thought is claimed as a special right. 

Finally, on the 5th of February, 1875, 
Pius IX., in an encyclical addressed to 
the Prussian bishops, encouraged them to 
constancy and patience, urging them to 



390 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

avoid anything that could be construed 
into a violation of any law not touching 
their religious rights, so as to give no pre- 
text to their enemies. As the government 
was straining every nerve to intrude fallen 
priests of the old Catholic heresy into 
parishes by pretended elections, the Pope 
declared such intruders excommunicated 
ipso facto, and warned the faithful not to 
attend any mass or office celebrated by 
them, or accept their ministry for them- 
selves or their children. 

To the troubles arising from the perse- 
cutions at home and abroad, a private af- 
fliction befell Pope Pius IX. in 1872. His 
brother Count Cajetan Mastai died on the 
20th of September, but his days of grief 
and mourning were not respected by Vic- 
tor Emmanuel, who turned them into clays 
of public noise and rejoicing. 

The persecution of the Church in Swit- 
zerland resembled that in Prussia. The 
Protestant and infidel parties combined 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 391 

carried things even to further lengths. 
Having a majority in the legislature, and 
having after the Sonderbund deprived 
the Catholic cantons of the right of con- 
trolling their own religious affairs, the 
enemies of the Church abrogated the con- 
cordat concluded with the Pope in 1828, 
passed laws for the election of parish 
priests, and suppressed most of the par- 
ishes. In the Bernese Jura sixty-nine thou- 
sand non-Catholics imposed on the Cath- 
olic population of eighteen thousand a 
law for "the reorganization of the Cath- 
olic worship." The Catholics could not 
recognize such interference in their faith 
and discipline. The government then 
drove into exile Mqt. Mermillod, bish- 
op of Hebron and coadjutor of Geneva, 
and deposed Bishop Lachat of Basle 
on the ground that he accepted the 
Vatican Council. Every one of the sixty- 
nine parish priests in the Bernese Jura 
was deposed, driven from his parish, 



392 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

and finally from the country. Disgraced 
priests from various parts nocked in, and 
were elected by non-Catholic votes and 
installed by government in the Catholic 
churches. The churches in Geneva, Berne, 
and other parts where the rights of Cath- 
olics were protected by treaty, were simi- 
larly wrested from the Catholics, who, pre- 
vented by their conscience from voting, saw 
a few Free Masons, or free-thinkers claim- 
ing to be Catholics seize their churches 
and install notorious apostates. Then the 
teachers who refused to attend the mock 
services of these wretches were driven 
from the schools. Catholics could hear 
mass only by stealth, or in barns and out- 
houses. Switzerland in all this was sup- 
ported by Bismarck, who prevented the 
expelled priests from crossing the frontiers 
into his empire. 

The Pope saw his nuncio dismissed, and 
all diplomatic relations broken off, so that 
his appeals to the sense of honor and jus- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS LX. 



393 



tice of the ancient republic were of no 
effect. In his enc}^clieal of November 
21st he deplored the evils which had 
overtaken the Church in so many parts, 
and pointed to their true source, the se- 
cret societies. These, animated by a satanic 
hatred of Christian truth, had, by securing 
the administration in many countries, be- 
gun a terrible and unrelenting war on the 
Catholic Church, which they justly re- 
garded as the only obstacle to their fell 
designs. By their use of the press they 
blinded masses of the people to believe 
them the real advocates of the best in- 
terests of man ; but sooner or later the 
mask would fall, and this fearful anti- 
Christian conspiracy stand before the 
world in its true hideousness. In this 
encyclical he again condemned the sacri- 
legious usurpers of the patrimony of St. 
Peter; he praised the constancy of the 
exiled Swiss bishops and their faithful 
clergy, while he excommunicated formally 



39-i 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



the intruded priests. As to the laws of 
Prussia against the Church, he declared 
them to be such as could possess no bind- 
ing force on the conscience of Catholics. 
As the persecution continued with unre- 
lenting severity, Pius IX., on the 23d of 
March, 1875, addressed another encyclical 
to the Swiss bishops and clergy, stigmatiz- 
ing the movements of the so-called Old 
Catholics of which they were the victims. 

The Sacred College of Cardinals had 
by death been greatly reduced in numbers. 
From time to time the Pope had raised to 
this exalted position members of the epis- 
copate or clergy whose services foreshad- 
owed a fitness for that great Council of the 
Church. In 1863 he appointed Cardinal 
Panebianco of the Order of St. Francis, 
Cardinal Trevisanato, patriarch of VeDice, 
Cardinals de Luca and Bizzari, Archbish- 
op Sastra of Seville, Archbishop Bonne- 
chose of Bouen, Dom Pitra of the Order 
of St. Benedict. In his creation of June 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 395 

22, 1866, he conferred the cardinal's hat 
for the first time on a native of Ireland, 
and a dignitary in the Island of Saints. 
The long constancy and sufferings of Ire- 
land were rewarded by seeing His Grace 
Paul Cullen, Archbishop of Dublin, take 
his place in the Sacred College, the only 
other cardinal appointed at the time being 
Gustavus von Hohenlohe, a prince of one 
of the highest houses in Germany. Six 
cardinals were created in 1868, among 
them Lucian Bonaparte, and John Igna- 
tius Moreno, a native of Guatemala. On 
the 22d of December, 1873, Pius IX. 
raised to the same dignity a number of 
archbishops in various countries, and an 
humble Jesuit, Father Tarquini, who did 
not live long to enjoy the unsought honor. 

The Church was soon to meet persecu- 
tion in a new field. In Brazil discipline 
had been so relaxed that many confrater- 
nities connected with the churches had 
admitted persons, who, as members of 



396 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

the Masonic lodges and other secret so- 
cieties, could not approach the sacraments, 
being in fact no longer Catholics. The 
bishops wished to revive piety and make 
these confraternities, what they were in 
their origin, associations of zealous, practi- 
cal Catholics, frequenters of the sacra- 
ments. This became all the more necessa- 
ry as Masonry made open war on religion. 
Bishop Oliveira, of Olinda, called upon 
the confraternities to expel all members 
of the secret societies forbidden by the 
Church. They refused, and the bishop 
interdicted their chapels. On this they 
appealed to the civil courts, composed 
mainly of Free Masons ; these ordered the 
bishop to remove the interdict, and on his 
denying the competence of the state tri- 
bunals to decide a purely ecclesiastical 
question, he was sentenced to imprison- 
ment and hard labor. It is almost in- 
conceivable that in a pretendedly Catho- 
lic country such a monstrous mockery of 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 397 

justice could be perpetrated. But the 
bishop of Olinda was seized in January, 
1874, and carried on a man-of-war to Bio 
Janeiro, where he was confined in an un- 
healthy prison under the very eyes of the 
emperor, who sustained the whole in- 
iquity. The bishop of Para soon met the 
same fate ; and the administrators of the 
two dioceses, for refusing to raise the in- 
terdict, were also sent to prison. 

Failing to crush the independence of 
the episcopate by brute force, they at- 
tempted to surprise the good faith of the 
Pope, and the Brazilian Government sent 
a delegate to Borne to misrepresent the 
conduct of the bishops as rash, illegal, and 
detrimental to the faith. But there was 
Catholic feeling left in Brazil, and the 
elections that followed drove from office 
the ministry ; the bishops were set at lib- 
erty, and Pius IX., on delusive promises, 
allowed the interdicts to be removed. It 
is needless to say, however, that faith has 



398 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



not been kept, and that the original dif- 
ficulty still remains. 

Venezuela attempted the Prussian and 
Swiss system ; Buenos Ayres in a riot de- 
stroyed a college of the Jesuit Fathers ; 
Peru claimed all the jus patronatus of the 
Spanish kings, and Pius IX., to avoid great- 
er evils, granted this under certain neces- 
sary restrictions by his brief in March, 1874. 

Ecuador alone in those lands gave real 
consolation to the heart of the Pope. 
There the noble Garcia Moreno sought 
to elevate his people by giving the Church 
freedom to do her work. He sent ten 
thousand dollars to the prisoner of the 
Vatican in the name of the Republic of 
Ecuador; he consecrated that State to 
the Sacred Heart of Jesus ; he gave shel- 
ter to religious expelled from Switzer- 
land. Ecuador was instinct with new life. 
With a clergy full of zeal, not appointed by 
the president from political motives, as in 
Peru, but chosen by the bishops for merit 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



399 



and learning, a spirit of faith and intel- 
ligence would have soon been diffused. 
The revolution doomed him. Moreno was 
assassinated in August, 1875. 

Russia was a constant source of grief to 
Pius IX. He had never been able to ob- 
tain any relaxation of the persecution of 
the United Greeks, and from time to time 
the Latin Church in that empire suffered 
as well. The Archbishop of Warsaw, 
Mgr. Felinski, and other bishops had been 
exiled to Siberia in 1863; priests died and 
none replaced them ; churches were seized. 

Nicholas had, by his course of cruel- 
ties, driven whole communities of United 
Greeks into the schismatic Russian Church. 
The little diocese of Chelm remained, and 
on this the fury of Alexander II. was 
turned. The horrors told in Catholic 
journals found none to believe them, but 
they have been made patent to the world 
in an official publication of the English 
Government. The rosary, preaching in 



400 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



Polish, organs, bells, and monstrances were 
first abolished by law. Bishop Kalinski 
of Chelm, opposing these changes, was 
sent to Siberia, and died there in the 
arms of the bishop of Wilna, a fellow ex- 
ile. The government sent one Popiel 
as administrator, who forced schismatic 
priests into the churches. The faithful 
were driven into the edifices with the 
knout, and every refusal punished by 
heavy fines ; many died of their injuries 
and of starvation; numbers were sent to 
Siberia. As this failed, a new course was 
adopted. A priest named Kuzienski was 
nominated for the see of Chelm, and as 
nothing was known against him the Pope 
appointed him. He at once sided with 
the government till, overcome by remorse, 
he retired to Gralicia, leaving Popiel again 
in full control. By the order of that man 
the United Greek service was made to 
conform in all respects to the schisma- 
tic. The peasants endeavored to keep 



401 



out the schismatic priests from their 
churches. Numbers were accordingly 
shot down by the Cossacks at Pratulin, 
and Drylow. In the autumn of 1874 the 
persecution revived with all its violence. 

Pius IX. conjured the United Greek 
archbishop of Lemberg in Austrian Poland 
to do all in his power to relieve those 
poor people who could not escape from 
the country even. By his bull Omnem 
Solieitudinem (May 13, 1874), he de 
clared that the Holy See had always es- 
teemed the Eastern liturgies, and especial- 
ly that of the United Greeks, as adjusted 
by the Council of Zamosc, in 1720. This 
was communicated to the poor people, but 
the Russians perverted it in every way, 
and the violence continued till numbers 
yielded. Then it was proclaimed that the 
diocese of Chelm had returned to the 
orthodox Greek faith. Alexander re- 
fused all petitions and appeals, created 

a new diocese of Lublin, and appoint- 
26 



402 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



ed Popiel bishop. The United Greek 
Church in Russia was thus absolutely 
crushed out of existence, in open violation 
of treaties guaranteeing its adherents the 
free exercise of their faith. 

The war has now begun on the Latin 
churches; many have been suppressed, 
the Latin clergy are forbidden to baptize 
children of parents belonging to the Latin 
and United Greek rites, and all tends to 
show that fearful persecutions will fol- 
low. 

Amid all these distresses in various 
parts of his vast flock the aged Pope had 
little to console him. His twenty-eighth 
anniversary was hailed with joy on the 
20th of June, 1874, but he was grieved to 
see those who manifested their devotion 
to him arrested in the streets of Rome 
and dragged to prison as criminals. So 
had the law of guarantees been kept 
which pretended to secure the same honors 
to the Pope as to the king ! 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



403 



His allocution in the Consistory of De- 
cember 21st deplored the schism among 
the Armenians and the Chaldeans in the 
Turkish empire, which, fomented by Ger- 
many, was causing great injury to souls. 
On the eve of Christmas he proclaimed 
the Jubilee for 1875. This led to a gen- 
eral revival of faith and piety. Pilgrim- 
ages to the shrines famous' for graces re- 
ceived — Lourdes, Paray le Monial, Rome, 
Loretto, Einsiedeln — became numerous and 
fervent. The Eternal City saw bodies of 
the faithful arrive constantly to pray at 
the tombs of the Apostles, and the spots 
hallowed by the lives and deaths of so 
many saints; and few departed, without 
visiting the Vatican to receive the bless- 
ing of the Holy Father. 

Against him the so-called Italian Gov- 
ernment sought new arrows. It pro- 
hibited the papers from printing his 
words, addresses, allocutions, or the like. 
It passed laws to force seminarians to 



404 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



serve in the army. To save them Pius IX. 
appealed to Victor Emmanuel, but in vain. 

In a promotion of cardinals in May, 
1875, Pius IX. bestowed the cardinal's hat 
on Archbishop Ledochowski, of Posen, 
then in prison in Germany ; on the illustri- 
ous Manning, Archbishop of Westminster, 
on the Archbishops of Mechlin, Chalce- 
don, Kennes, and Sardia, and on the Patri- 
arch of Constantinople. To America, too, 
he paid a high honor in giving the Church 
in the Western World for the first time 
an American cardinal, American not only 
in birth, but in the dignity he already pos- 
sessed. To the joy of the whole Catholic 
population of the United States he raised to 
the dignity of cardinal-priest John McClos- 
key, Archbishop of New York, whose gen- 
tleness of character, zeal, and labors in 
his priesthood, as Coadjutor of New York, 
Bishop of Albany, and Archbishop of New 
York, had endeared him to all. 

The feeling of gratitude for this high 



JOHN, CARDINAL McCLOSKEY. 
Born March 10, 1810. 
Created Cardinal, March 15, 1875. 



LITE OF POPE PIUS IX. 407 

honor was not confined to Catholics. In 
fact the first known proposal for the crea- 
tion of an American cardinal was made 
during the presidency of Abraham Lin- 
coln, by the American minister to Rome. 
Pius IX. then remarked, that as he was the 
first pope who had ever been in America, 
it was right that he should appoint the 
first American cardinal. This project was 
at last effected, and the government of the 
United States thanked his Holiness for 
thus enabling the Catholics of the Union 
to be represented in the great Council of 
the Church. 

On the 6th of November, 1876, Pius 
IX. sustained a great loss. Grod in his 
providence took from him one who had 
for years been his trusted minister, the 
wise and able Cardinal Antonelli, a man 
of unblemished life, a devoted servant of 
the See of Peter, a statesman of that rare 
stamp that is rarely met in history. In 
all the difficulties that chequered the pon- 







i » 














408 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

tificate of Pope Pius IX., Cardinal Anto- 
nelli had shown genius of the highest 
order. The diplomatic body, so frequent- 
ly in relation with him, attested the gran- 
deur of his mind, the nobility and truly 
Christian character of his policy in an age 
that seeks to divorce statesmanship from 
religion. 

This great man was born at Sonnino, 
April 2, 1806, of a family which had long 
possessed means and position among their 
fellow-citizens. Devoting himself to the 
service of the Church he studied with a 
view to a position in the prelacy, and 
held several judicial and executive offices. 
Not long after his accession Pope Pius IX. 
made him Under Secretary of State. In 
1847 he became Minister of Finance and 
President of the Ministry, and from that 
time to his death served the Pope with 
an nis lemaiKaoie xaienxs anu. aoiiiiy. xie 
was, as we have seen, made a cardinal- 
deacon, but never w r as ordained a priest. 

















LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 409 

Possessing great wealth from his family, 
and fine tastes, his hours of relaxation 
were spent among the artistic collections 
which he had gathered around him. 

The more recent acts of the great Pope, 
his allocution of December. 25, 1875, his 
action in regard to the attempted viola- 
tion of the Spanish Concordat, his brief 
to the Brazilian bishops on the Masonic 
body on the 27th of May, 1876, and his 
brief to the bishop of St. Paul, in Au- 
gust, merit the attention of all. 

In China, though treaties had been 
made with the Catholic powers, which 
guaranteed the Church from persecution, 
Pius IX. beheld the vanity of trusting 
in princes. The Emperor of China was 
too weak or too hostile to carry out 
the treaties in good faith. From time 
to time sad tidings reach us from that 
strange realm. Scarcely had reparation 
been made for the massacre of Catholics 
at Tientsin, . where devoted priests and 



410 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



sisters with their faithful converts dyed 
the soil with their blood, when a new per- 
secution broke out. A Catholic catechist 
was put to death in April, 1876, at 
Kiengpinkien, and a native Chinese priest, 
Wang, was soon after put to death at 
Ningkofou. 

While the heralds of the truth of God 
were thus witnessing with their blood in 
China, devoted French priests, endeavor- 
ing to remove the darkness from the heart 
of Africa and let the beams of the Sun of 
Justice illumine that pagan-bound land, 
fell victims to their zeal, receiving the 
crown of martyrdom at the hands of the 
ruthless Touaregs. 

In April, 1876, the Pope promoted to 
the Sacred College the bishop of Calvi, 
Mgr. Bartholomew d'Avanzi, and Father 
Franzelin, of the Society of Jesus. 

In the consistory of March 12, 1877, 
Pius IX. raised to the Sacred College the 
Patriarch of the West Indies, the Arch- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 411 

bishops of Capua, Saragossa, Neo Csesarea, 
Compostella, and Lyons, the Bishops of 
Verona, Viterbo, as cardinal priests, and 
three prelates, Mgrs. Nina, Sbarreti, and 
Falloux, as cardinal deacons. 

In his allocution he reviewed all that 
the Church had suffered since the mo- 
ment when, seven years before, the in- 
vaders of his civil principality, breaking 
faith in solemn compacts, and taking ad- 
vantage of the misfortunes of an illustri- 
ous Catholic nation, by violence and force 
of arms occupied the provinces still re- 
maining in his power, and took possession 
of the holy city. 

He recounted their false and worth- 
less promises, the suppression of religious 
orders whose work was absolutely neces- 
sary for the transaction of the affairs of 
ecclesiastical congregations, and for the 
performance of so many of the duties 
of our ministry. This fatal suppression 
struck even the colleges established in 



412 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

Kome for holy missions, for the training 
of worthy laborers, willing fearlessly to 
bear the light of the Gospel even into the 
most remote and barbarous regions. Thus 
they deprived many nations of the saving 
succors of piety and charity, to the great 
detriment of human welfare and civiliza- 
tion, both of which spring from the holi- 
ness, the teachings, and the virtues of our 
religion. 

He spoke of the laws in the pretend- 
edly free country which prevented men 
•or women from living together beneath 
the same roof, if actuated by religious 
motives ; of the law by which young sem- 
inarians w^ere torn from the schools of 
divinity, and forced into the army, of the 
seizure of the Church property, and the 
profanation of sacred buildings, and the 
gradual suppression of all those pious 
works and institutions which were the 
pride of Catholic Rome. 

He then enlarged upon the daring 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX 413 



" Law on Clerical Abuses " which had al- 
ready passed one house. " Once this 
law is passed and promulgated," says the 
Pope, " a lay tribunal will be permitted 
to define whether, in the administration 
of the sacraments, and in the preaching 
of the Word of Grod, the priest has dis- 
turbed and how he has disturbed the 
public conscience and the peace of fami- 
lies ; and the condition of the bishop and 
priest will be such that their voices can 
be restricted and silenced, equally with 
that of- the Vicar of Jesus Christ, who, 
although declared in his person, through 
political reasons, exempt from all penal- 
ties, is none the less supposed to be pun- 
ished in the person of those who may have 
been accomplices in his fault. This is, in 
fact, what a minister of the kingdom in 
the Chamber of Duputies did not hesi- 
tate to declare openly, when, speaking of 
us, he freely avowed that it was neither 
new nor obsolete in the laws, nor contrary 



414 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

to the rules, the science, or the practice of 
criminal law, to punish the accomplices in 
a crime when the chief author could not 
be reached. Whence it becomes clear 
that in the intention of those who govern, 
it is against our person, also, that the force 
of this law is directed ; so that when our 
words or acts shall come in contact with 
this law, the bishops or priests who may 
have repeated our words, or executed our 
orders, must suffer the penalty of the pre- 
tended crime, of which we, as chief author, 
will be condemned to bear the inculpation 
of the offense." 

He then refuted those who pretended 
that he was not a prisoner, because he 
was allowed to receive deputations of 
bishops and priests; he detailed all that 
was done and permitted to degrade relig- 
ion, to prevent any public religious mani- 
festations by pilgrimages or processions. 
He shows that he must regard as a piece 
of bitter irony and a mere mockery the 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 415 

assertion that he ought to take measures 
to conciliate the new masters, by yielding 
up to them not only his sworn rights as 
sovereign, but in reality his divine minis- 
try as head of the Church, to be exercised 
in such matters as suited for the time be- 
ing the creatures who might for the mo- 
ment have the control in that one country 
of earth. 

He concluded with these forcible words: 
" Now every one can certainly see, in all 
their manifestness, and under all their 
phases, the force, the vigor, and the good 
faith of those pretended guarantees, by 
means of which, to deceive the faithful, our 
enemies have boasted of meaning to se- 
cure the freedom and dignity of the Ro- 
man Pontiff, and which are at the mere 
mercy of the hostile whims and caprices 
of the governments on which they depend, 
according to their plans, their purposes, 
and the pleasure of their whims, to apply, 
preserve, interpret, and execute. Never, 



416 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS LX. 



most assuredly never, can the Roman Pon- 
tiff ever be fully master of his freedom 
and his power, so long as he remains sub- 
ject to the rulers in his capital. There is 
no other destiny possible for him in Home 
but that of a sovereign or a prisoner ; and 
there can never be any peace, security, or 
tranquillity for the entire Catholic Church 
so long as the exercise of the supreme ec- 
clesiastical ministry is at the mercy of the 
passions of party, the caprice of govern- 
ments, the vicissitudes of political elections, 
and of the projects and actions of design- 
ing men who will not hesitate to sacrifice 
justice to their own interests." 

But the great Pope was full of hope, 
and thanking the faithful who, in their 
charity, had come forward so generously to 
meet the wants of the Church, he urged all 
to pray for the speedy deliverance of the 
Spouse of Christ. 

The usurping government at once is- 
sued a circular, in which, though they 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 417 

scarcely ventured yet to prevent the pub- 
lication of the allocution or threaten vio- 
lence to the Holy Father, they forbade any 
paper to add to the allocution any com- 
ments expressing their adhesion to the 
words of the Pope. 

Cardinal Simeoni at once addressed a 
circular to all the apostolic nuncios repre- 
senting the Holy See, in which, after a 
magnificent defense of the Holy See, he 
called special attention to this act of the 
so-called Italian Government, and to the 
position of the Pope. This circular, laid 
before the various courts, drew at once 
clear and decisive expressions of opinion. 
Even the liberal press of England at last 
admitted that the Pope was absolutely 
right, and Victor Emmanuel and his gov- 
ernment utterly in the wrong. 

We have thus sketched the life of Pius 
IX. from his earliest years, and especially 
of his career as Pope and king. Events 
have shown that the zeal for a united 
27 



418 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



Italy was rooted mainly in a hatred of 
the Catholic Church. The party whom 
we have called the Revolution, whether 
the commune in Paris or Bismarck in 
Berlin, or Victor Emmanuel in Rome, 
whether from the dregs of society or the 
throne and the cabinet, may profess great 
love for humanity and hold forth glitter- 
ing promises, but when we look for re- 
sults we find nothing effected except 
oppression of the Catholic Church. Peo- 
ple will soon ask themselves, What has 
liberalism done for Spain, for Italy, for 
Germany? Are the people advanced in 
well-being, education, morality? The ab- 
solute sterility of all result will but set in 
a higher luster the just claims of the 
Catholic Church as the greatest institu- 
tion the world has ever beheld for the 
well-being of nations. 

In the great contest in which liberalism, 
wielding all the brute force that govern- 
ment machinery can grasp, has warred 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 419 

upon the Church, Pius IX. stands in moral 
grandeur as the unconquered, vigilant, 
zealous leader of the hosts of Israel. 
Never compromising the cause of truth 
and justice, undismayed by peril, un- 
shaken in trial, he is and has long been 
and we trust long will be to the enemies 
of the faith a grim citadel of firmness, 
while to the faithful he is all that 
win their affectionate devotion and loy- 
alty. 

On Sunday, June 3, 1877, the Catholic 
world united with its glorious Pontiff in 
commemorating his consecration as bishop 
in the church of "St. Peter in Chains," 
fifty years before. Preparations had been 
made in all countries for the day ; bishops 
and priests, religious and laymen, bent their 
way to Rome, and every diocese sent its 
offering to lay at the feet of the impri- 
soned Pope. During the month of May, 
deputation after deputation reached Rome 
to offer addresses and gifts. More than a 



420 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

million of dollars attested the love.,, devo- 
tion, and generosity of his world-wide flock ; 
and it is gratifying to state, that if France, 
so active in all good works, led the list, 
the hierarchy of the United States, scarcely 
older than the Pope, stood second on the 
list, surpassing all other countries. 

When the eventful day dawned upon 
Rome, immense crowds gathered in the 
basilica of St. Peter in Chains — that an- 
cient church where only a year before the 
relics of the Seven Machabee Brothers 

i 

were discovered — to celebrate the anniver- 
sary. A large painting over the main en- 
trance represented the solemn consecration 
of fifty years before, and an elegant Latin 
inscription expressed the thanks of the 
Catholic world to God for preserving Pius 
IX. to rule in the Church of God, as well 
as the fervent prayer of the city and the 
world that, as Prince and Pontiff, he 
might yet crown the triumph of the Cath- 
olic cause. Within all was li^ht and deco- 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



421 



ration. Over the main arch, on a cloth of 
gold, was the inscription, " Thou shalt 
sanctify the fiftieth year, for it is the jubi- 
lee of the Lord." On the gospel side was 
a text as apposite : " Jerusalem, lift up thy 
eyes round about and see : All these are 
gathered together, thy sons have come to 
thee." On the epistle side, "Thy sons 
shall come to thee from afar, bringing 
gold and frankincense, and announcing 
the praise of the Lord." Portraits of 
twenty-two great bishops, revered as saints, 
hung around. The solemn high mass was 
celebrated by Cardinal Simeoni, in the 
presence of several members of the Sacred 
College, many bishops and prelates, the 
Duke and Duchess of Parma, the ambas- 
sadors of France and Austria, and many 
distinguished individuals. The music of 
Palestrini, rendered as only Rome can 
render it, moved all hearts. 

The line of carriages that soon after 
were seen proceeding to the Vatican seem- 



422 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

ed endless ; the streets were thronged, and 
though the usurpers hung out on their 
government buildings the Italian flag, they 
found scarce an imitator in the city. 

The Sala Ducale in the Vatican was 
crowded ; more than three thousand Ital- 
ians had come to attest their , fidelity to 
Pius IX. and the Papacy; and when at 
one o'clock the Pope, who had celebrated 
his Jubilee mass in his private chapel, ap- 
peared, he was greeted with enthusiastic 
cries : " Viva Pio Nono ! Viva el Ponti- 
fice, il He ! Ad multos annos ! Viva, viva, 
il Beatissimo Padre ! " 

The Holy Father was at first too deeply 
moved to find utterance for words. Then 
he said : " My beloved children, when I 
see so many of - you, aDd I know you are 
not all here, I feel great consolation and 
great joy, because you are the evidences 
of what Catholic Italy really is. And 
like Jacob I bless my children. I bless 
them, that their numbers may increase 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 423 

still more, so that being united in heart 
and faith, this faith and this union may 
increase with numbers for your welfare, 
for general edification, and for the triumph 
of the Church. I bless you, your families, 
your societies, your dioceses, so that this 
benediction may be a tower of strength 
to you in the struggles of this life, while 
waiting for the endless joys of eternity." 

All knelt during his impressi ve words, 
but rose with renewed enthusiasm as he 
retired. 

Addresses of congratulation from all 
countries were presented, that from the 
United States by Archbishop Wood of 
Philadelphia; while the offerings of the 
faithful formed an international exhibi- 
tion. 

The Avhole city was full of signs of de- 
votion, and the trembling usurper called 
out his troops to the number of thousands 
for a review, and sent his lowest rabble 
to yell insults to the Pope through the 



424 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

streets ; but nothing could check the ar- 
dor of the real Romans. When night 
fell the palaces of the Roman princes and 
others devoted to Pope Pius IX. were 
illuminated in token of the general joy. 

This Jubilee was soon followed by the 
thirty-first anniversary of his elevation to 
the See of Peter, and he thus enters on a 
new year of that Pontificate which has 
wrought such wonders for the Church. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Personal Appearance of Pius IX. — His Mode 
of Life. — Supernatural Gifts ascribed 
to him. — Conclusion. 

Pius IX. is in stature rather above 
middle size, his head is large and his 
forehead broad and high, his hair is 
white, his complexion very clear, and 
still rosy in the cheeks, his lips red 
and rather large; his quick black eyes, 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX, 425 

though - very soft, light up his whole 
countenance. His head habitually in- 
clines slightly to the right. 

His voice is gentle, yet sonorous ; in 
conversation its harmony enchants all, and 
in the great ceremonies of the Church it 
rises with singular power and beauty in 
the vast temples of religion, full of dig- 
nity and grandeur. 

His life is most simple. While he has 
spent millions in charitable institutions, 
especially on orphanages, on churches and 
their adornment, on the collections of the 
Vatican, all that he personally requires is 
an official room and a sleeping-chamber. 
The last is uncarpeted ; plain yellow cur- 
tains hang at the windows. His bedstead 
is a small iron one without curtains, and 
this constitutes almost the entire furniture 
of the room, with the prie dieu on which 
stands his crucifix. No fire is ever lighted 
there, cold as the weather may be. His 
sitting-room is small, with a table covered 



426 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



by a plain cloth, two chairs, an arm-chair, 
and a book-case. 

Ever since his elevation to the Pontifi- 
cate his course of life has been uniform. 
Unless after unusual fatigue, or by di- 
rection of his physician, he rises at half- 
past five, and dresses without assistance 
from his attendant. 

After his morning prayer in his room, 
he proceeds to his little chapel, where 
he remains for half an hour before the 
Blessed Sacrament. He then says his 
mass and hears another while making 
his thanksgiving. When he is not well 
enough to celebrate, he hears a mass said 
by one of his chaplains and receives Holy 
Communion. 

He then gives directions in any urgent 
matter that will not admit of delay, recites 
his office, and about nine o'clock takes a 
cup of black coffee, which is his whole 
breakfast, and his whole morning refresh- 
ment unless on days of unusual fatigue, 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



427 



when lie allows himself a cup of light 
soup. During his breakfast, members of 
his family who may happen to be in Rome 
are received in audience. The morning 
letters are then received, for the mail 
is brought to his Holiness three times a 
day, and he not only opens the bag him- 
self, but opens every letter addressed from 
all parts of the world, and notes in his 
own hand instructions for his secretary to 
draw up the answer. In this way no let- 
ter of importance ever remains in the 
Pope's desk at night. 

The Cardinal Secretary of State is next 
received in audience, and on his retirement 
those persons who have obtained special 
introductions are admitted, often taking 
up the whole time till half -past ten 
o'clock, when the doors of the grand 
apartments are opened to receive the 
cardinal prefects of the various congrega- 
tions, who wait upon the Pope to discuss 
the general affairs of the Church, and also 



428 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



ministers and other dignitaries for whom 
audiences have been assigned. Next fol- 
low the private audiences of those who 
have obtained that honor. Except on 
solemn occasions when the throne-room is 
used, Pius IX. receives them in his simple 
study. 

When the audiences are over, the Pope 
retires for a time to the chapel to pray 
before Him whose representative he is on 
earth. After this he spends a short time 
in conversation with his chamberlains, and 
at half -past two dinner is served. 

According to Pontifical etiquette the 
Pope usually dines alone, although excep- 
tion is at times made in favor of princes 
or princesses. He is served by his first 
valet de chambre. The meal consists of 
soup, a piece of boiled beef, a broil or 
roast, one dish of vegetables and one of 
fruit. On days of fasting and abstinence, 
fish and white meats replace the flesh 
meats ; but no better fare is provided for 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 429 

holidays. He takes a little ordinary 
white wine, greatly diluted with water, 
and his supply is purchased day by day, 
for Pius IX. has no wine cellar. When 
very weary he takes after his dinner a 
glass of wine, furnished especially by the 
Sisters of St. Joseph at Bourdeaux, made 
from a vineyard named after the Pope 
and cultivated with their own hands. 

All other delicacies offered him, and they 
are not few, are sent to the hospital. He 
never touches pastry or preserves. 

After dinner he takes a siesta of a 
quarter of an hour in an arm-chair. 

His next occupation is to say his beads, 
and recite vespers and complin. After 
this Pius IX., in other times, drove out to 
one of the great promei:ades of Rome ; 
and this moment of the day was anxiously 
looked for by visitors to the Eternal City, 
who wished to see the Pope. The favored 
ranged themselves on each side of the gal- 
lery through which he passed to his car- 



430 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

riage in his white cassock, red cape, and 
hat. A dragoon riding in advance an- 
nounced his coming, and a line was form- 
ed on either side of the streets to receive 
his blessing. When he reached the ap- 
pointed destination for the day, it was the 
custom of Pius IX. to alight and mingle 
with the crowd, exchanging kind words 
with any whom he recognized, and these 
were always many, for he possesses a won- 
derful memory, and recollects almost every 
one presented to him. 

Now of course that he is a prisoner this 
is impossible, and the very fact is one of 
the strong proofs that he is actually a 
prisoner. In spite of the guarantees pro- 
posed by Mazzini and carried out by Vic- 
tor Emmanuel, the Pope is so completely 
under the surveillance of the police that, 
on the occasion of his twenty-eighth anni- 
versary in 1874, when he appeared at a 
window in the Vatican, and the rapturous 
vivas arose among the people, all who 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 431 

thus showed their attachment were arrest- 
ed and punished. For the few then as- 
sembled, there would be tens of thousands 
who would crowd to hail the Pope, were 
he to drive out as of old through the 
streets of Rome, and the King of Sardinia 
would either shoot down the people or 
leave the city to its true ruler. 

Now the Pope takes his promenade in 
the galleries or in the gardens of the Vati- 
can, where' one alley lined with orange 
trees is his favorite resort. He is fond of 
sitting beneath a weeping willow at its 
extremity near the Zitella fountain, and 
throwing crumbs to some beautiful white 
pigeons kept there. 

Notwithstanding his advanced age his 
step is firm and quick, and his cane seems 
not required as a support. He sometimes 
laughs at his own activity, as he waits for 
the younger companions of his promenades. 

In other days he frequently walked 
out, and was most happy to find himself 



432 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



among the poor, whom he could relieve 
and console, or children whom he could 
question and encourage ; for his early in- 
terest in the young, shown at Tata Gio- 
vanni, has never decreased, and if in the 
future he should ever be placed on our 
altars, he will be the patron of the chil- 
dren of the poor. 

Rome is full of anecdotes of his kind- 
ness to those in humble circumstances, of 
his remembrance of all who rendered him 
service, of the affectionate intercourse be- 
tween him and the young. 

The Pope returns to his rooms at the 
Angelus, and after reciting matins and 
lauds of the next day with one of his 
chaplains, used formerly to give audiences 
on matters connected with his government. 
At nine o'clock he takes his frugal sup- 
per, consisting of a plate of soup, two 
potatoes, and a single fruit. At ten o'clock 
precisely he retires to his room, after a 
visit to the Blessed Sacrament. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 433 

There is pomp in the great functions 
where the Pope appears as Pontiff or king ; 
but in his private life, what can be con- 
ceived more simple, more poor, more frugal, 
more pious than this daily life of Pope Pius 
IX. ? The greatness is the greatness of 
his position ; the firmness is the firmness 
of duty ; in person he is simple, temperate, 
unostentatious ; and this simple, holy life, 
upborne by the spirit of prayer and con- 
fidence in almighty God, makes him a 
power which all the efforts of the world 
to crush only exalt. 

Many of those separated from our faith 
profess to think the change at Rome for 
the best ; but not one in his heart will say 
that the new ruler as a man in all that 
constitutes a pure, good man can be com- 
pared to Pius IX. ; not one will show by 
facts that Rome and the Papal States are 
better governed, or that the general hap- 
piness of the people has been increased. If 
the change gives these States an inferior 
28 



434 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

ruler, a less successful government, why 
should it stand ? 

In the eyes of a Catholic such a compar- 
ison is almost an insult to one who is not 
only beloved as a wronged and persecuted 
high-priest of God, but revered as one 
whose life is so holy in the sight of heaven 
that the Almighty makes him the chan- 
nel of supernatural favors. From time to 
time cures and other remarkable graces 
are reported as having been obtained by 
the prayers, the blessing, or the touch of 
something belonging to Pius IX. If any 
juridical examination has been made in 
these cases it is not communicated to the 
public, and we cannot, therefore, attest 
the facts. But they are believed by 
thousands who have witnessed .and ex- 
amined them, and in themselves attest the 
deep-seated feeling in Catholic hearts that 
God would grant extraordinary favors so- 
licited through his servant. 

It cannot be said that Catholics always 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS LX. 



435 



look upon the Pope as a saint ; their re- 
spect for his high dignity has nothing in 
common with that instinct of the Catholic 
heart which in rare cases fixes upon a 
person as a saint raised above the ordi- 
nary level of the good and pious, moving 
as it were on another plane, Elias-like still 
living, but associated with the glorified. 

Among the cases to which we refer 
were those of Mr. Bodenham, of London, 
restored on his death-bed, at the moment, 
in 1865, when the Pope united his prayers 
with those of the dying man ; of a para- 
lyzed novice at Digne cured in August, 
1866, and a young man at Paris, similarly 
paralyzed, cured in the same year by apply- 
ing a stocking worn by the Pope. In 1875 
a lady of the Sacred Heart at Eome, whose 
right arm was paralyzed, obtained an audi- 
ence of the Pope, and when he raised the 
afilicted limb and bade her make the sign 
of the cross, she did so and found herself 
completely cured. 



436 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



One day when Pius IX. entered the 
Hospital of San Spirito, a mason who had 
fallen from a building was brought in to 
all appearance dead. He was utterly un- 
conscious, and a cloth was laid over his 
face, so persuaded were all that the soul 
had left the body. The Pope went up 
and removed it. He blessed the sense- 
less form and said, "Do you hear me, 
my son?" Not the slightest tremor be- 
trayed the presence of life ; he lay still and 
silent. u Make the sign of the cross," said 
the Pope. To the. wonder of all, the man 
not only made the sign but pronounced 
the words. " Here, my son," said Pius 
IX., " here is something to help you live 
till you are completely well," giving him 
a considerable alms. The poor man 
thanked the Holy Father over and over, 
and Pius IX. blessing him again went his 
way. The next morning the mason was 
taken home, and another day saw him 
completely restored. 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 437 

When any of these cases are referred to 
the Pope always turns the conversation 
off with one of his pleasantries. So when 
the young Parisian in his gratitude has- 
tened to Rome, and having obtained an 
audience, burst forth in expressions of 
thanks, Pius IX. laughingly remarked, 
"That is very strange: all my trouble is in 
my legs, and though I wear my stockings 
all day they do not cure me." 

We have thus traced the life of the 
present Pope from his birth to his en- 
trance upon the thirty-second year of his 
pontificate. It may seem to some that 
our words have been simply those of 
eulogy, that we have painted all in bright- 
est colors, and have in their brightness 
made the shades disappear. But we have 
indulged in no exaggerations. The tongue 
of slander has never assailed the personal 
character of Pius IX. Nothing unbecoin- 
ing a young Christian gentleman has ever 
been raked up from real or imaginary 



438 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 



sources to throw a shade over his early 
manhood. The clumsy invention that he 
was admitted into a condemned secret so- 
ciety is the only charge, and in this coun- 
try we need little proof to show it an 
invention. The devoted young priest and 
the archbishop stand equally untarnished. 
As Pope King, no ruler sought more ac- 
tively and honestly the greatest good of 
the people of his States, ruled with greater 
justice, mercy, economy : as head of the 
Church his course has met the enthusias- 
tic adherence of the whole body of the 
faithful. 

That in his own self-examination he 
finds steps that may have ill-judged, some- 
thing for self-reproach, cannot but be true, 
for the Pope like every other child of the 
Church kneels at the foot of his confessor 
to avow his faults: but history shows no 
more unblemished character through a ! 
long and active life. 

The life of Pope Pius IX. is not closed, 



LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 439 



and the prayers of millions ascend to 
heaven, that the life so wonderfully pro- 
longed may still be extended to permit 
him to behold the triumph of right and 
truth. His pontificate has been one marked 
by commemorations ; he has celebrated 
not only the twenty-fifth, but the thirty- 
first anniversary of his election ; the fiftieth 
of his priesthood, the fiftieth of his episco- 
pate. Born when religion seemed pros- 
trate in France ; crushed in England ; fet- 
tered and weakened in Germany ; when 
in the United States a bishop, with the 
whole country for his diocese, was just 
endeavoring to see what could be done to 
save the few Catholics in the land, Pius 
IX. has lived to see the Church, like an 
army ranged in array, battling, but full of 
life, earnestness, and zeal, meeting the 
enemy at every point, growing stronger 
by being ever under arms, encouraged by 
his words and zeal and sufferings and 
great deeds, inspired by tokens of Heaven's 



440 LIFE OF POPE PIUS IX. 

approval, the apparitions of Our Lady at 
La Salette, Lourcles, and Marpingen y the 
wonders wrought there reviving pilgrim- 
ages throughout the world, the living 
imaee of the Crucified in Louise Lateau, 
the extended devotion to the Sacred Heart 
encouraged by the beatification of the 
Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque, pilgrim- 
ages to Paray-le-Monial, and his own con- 
secration of the whole Church and every 
diocese to our loving; Redeemer under that 
same consoling: title. He has seen it un- 
der his eyes united more closely than ever, 
its doctrines made definite and distinct by 
his decrees and those of a General Coun- 
cil. The priest who sought the children 
of the people, as Pope has made the Cath- 
olic body feel that its strength lay not in 
the favor of kings and princes, but in the 
hearts and the energy and devotedness 
of the Catholic people throughout the 
world. 



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